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TREASON AND PLOT 



i^ 



Treason 



AND Plot 



STRUGGLES FOR st- m^ 
CATHOLIC SUPREMACY 

IN THE LAST YEARS OF 
QUEEN ELIZABETH ja^ 



1 



^r7^ BY 

MARTIN A. S. HUME 

editor of the calendars of spanish state pape&s 
(public record office) 



^ 



NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON isr COMPANY 
1901 



I 



-^ 






.\^^ 



Printed by 

Ballantyne, Hanson &• Co. 

Edinburgh 



/ 



TO 

THE MANY UNKNOWN FRIENDS IN ENGLAND 

AND AMERICA WHOSE WELCOME LETTERS 

OF APPROVAL HAVE SWEETENED MY 

LABOURS IN A GRUDGING AND 

TOILSOME FIELD 

MARTIN A. S. HUME. 



PREFACE 

The adoption of the Reformation by England was 
an event which did not alone concern the nation 
itself, but threw out of balance the whole edifice 
of European power, built upon traditional alliances 
and international policies that had survived for 
centuries. However much it may have suited the 
temporal ends of Spanish monarchs to incite their 
subjects to religious exaltation, it was not crusading- 
zeal or spiritual fervour which impelled them for half 
a century to lavish the blood and substance of their 
countries, and to exhaust every expedient, from 
marriage to murder, for the purpose of bringing 
England back to the Catholic fold. A Protestant 
England and a divided Germany inevitably meant 
the decadence and final ruin of the great Spanish 
empire which the "Catholic sovereigns" had reared 
upon a base of bigotry. 

Without a close alliance with England, and the 
certainty of efficient support from Germany, Spain 
found herself with a jealous rival, France, on each 
flank. On the one hand, her dominions in Italy, 
only held by the right of the sword, would sooner 
or later be lost to her ; and, on the other hand, 
Flanders and Holland, shut off' by land if the 



viii PREFACE 

Italian dominion passed away, could not be reached 
from Spain even by water, unless England held the 
Channel and England were friendly. 

When the spread of the Reformed doctrines in 
Holland drove the Burghers to shake off the yoke 
of intolerant Spain, and Protestant England, for her 
own national safety, found it necessary to aid the 
insurgents, it became no longer a matter of future 
policy, but of vital and immediate necessity, for 
Philip II. to persuade or force England into alliance 
or benevolent neutrality. The need was still further 
increased when the Huguenot power in France bade 
fair to overcome the Catholic supremacy there, and 
thus to leave Spain isolated without the possibility of 
alliance either with England or France : for it must 
be remembered that Spain could not afford to deal 
on equal terms with a Protestant power, because 
the admission of any question as to the supremacy 
of the Church, in all its rigidity, would have struck 
at the power by which Spain held together her 
mixed and recently reconciled populations, and have 
invalidated the exclusive right she claimed over the 
whole of the New World. It was, therefore, a matter 
of national life or death for her that England, by 
some means, should be made Catholic. 

On the other hand, the circumstances which sur- 
rounded the birth and accession of Elizabeth were 
such that an acknowledgment on her part of the 
Papal supremacy would have branded her as a 
bastard, and would have deprived her of her here- 



PREFACE 



IX 



ditary right to rule. Whilst this was the case with 
her, there is no doubt that her personal leanings 
were to a great extent in favour of a ceremonious 
form of worship, and of the authority and dignity 
which belonged to the ancient Church ; and it was 
equally important for England as it was for Spain 
to prevent the Flemish dominions of the latter 
power from ever falling into the hands of France. 
It will be understood, therefore, that, although 
the religious problems between England and Spain 
were opposed and irreconcilable, their national 
and traditional interests still to a great extent 
coincided ; and it was this latter circumstance which 
enabled Elizabeth and Lord Burghley, through a 
long series of years, to play their consummate 
game of balance and chicanery, which paralysed 
Spain for harm, whilst England was growing in 
potency and wealth. 

The imminence of the succession of a Huguenot 
to the throne of France, which threatened an 
approximation of French religious interests with 
those of England, at length compelled Philip to 
abandon a temporising policy with Elizabeth. If 
he could not force England to be Catholic before 
Henry of Navarre ruled France as a Protestant and 
made common cause with Elizabeth, then indeed 
had the star of Spanish power sunk to rise no 
more. But, as was usual with all his resolutions 
of action, Philip adopted his policy too late ; and 
the defeat of the Armada exhibited to a scoffing and 



X PREFACE 

envious world a nation already in decadence, not only 
in material strength, but in the moral forces which had 
previously been the principal secret of her success. 

But though her Armada was defeated and Spain 
was riddled with corruption, her national necessity 
to make England sufficiently Catholic to be a fit 
ally for her ends remained unchanged. Her dreams 
of greatness, moreover, continued to loom large in 
her uneasy slumbers long after the decay of her 
potency had set in. The Catholic interests in 
England were many, and, for a multitude of reasons, 
devotional, sentimental, and mundane, a consider- 
able portion of the people would have welcomed 
the return of a Catholic dispensation. But the long 
years of antagonism and informal warfare which 
the circumstances just mentioned had produced 
between England and Spain, had before the last de- 
cade of Elizabeth's reign given birth to a new pride 
of country in the breasts of most Englishmen, and 
a determination that a people who had shown their 
inability even to hold their own against England 
on the sea should not gain dominion over the land 
by means of religion or otherwise. It was this 
new patriotism that divided the Catholic forces 
in England, and the knowledge, then general, of 
Spain's selfish objects that divided them abroad ; 
and, as a consequence of the changed position, the 
struggles to impose Catholic supremacy upon Eng- 
land that followed the catastrophe of the Armada 
differed entirely from those that preceded it. 



PREFACE xi 

The story of these struggles up to 1588 has been 
told fully by Froude and many other historians ; 
but it has usually been assumed that with the 
defeat of the Armada the strenuous attempts to 
bring England again into the circle of the Roman 
Catholic Church and to a close alliance with Spain 
came to an end. That this was far from being 
the case will be admitted by those who honour 
me by reading these pages, in which I have en- 
deavoured to set forth, as fully as the limits of 
one volume would permit, the continuous efforts 
made by the various Catholic elements, English 
and foreign, to establish the supremacy of their faith 
in England from 1593 to the accession of James 
in 1603; which latter date marks the final extinc- 
tion of their hopes. 

Much of the material from which the story is 
written is now used for the purpose for the first 
time, especially the Spanish MSS. transcribed by the 
present writer at Simancas, and abstracted in the 
last volume of the Spanish Calendar of Elizabeth. 
I have also drawn upon the calendared and un- 
calendared Irish State papers, the latest volume of 
the Venetian papers, the Hatfield papers, calen- 
dared and uncalendared ; and, for the story of the 
Lopez conspiracy, I have been permitted to make 
abstracts of some interesting manuscripts in the 
possession of Lord Calthorpe, and also some un- 
published papers in the Archives Rationales, Paris. 
I have endeavoured to set forth the historical facts 



xii PREFACE 

in all simplicity, and with absolute detachment so 
far as regards their religious aspect ; and in every 
case where I have ventured to draw a deduction 
of any sort, the evidence upon which I have de- 
pended is placed before the reader, in order that 
he may judge for himself how far my conclusions 
are justified. This book does not claim to be a 
contribution, however small, to religious contro- 
versy, but is a diligent attempt to add something 
to the knowledge of historical fact, and to set 
forth, by the light of modern research, one phase 
of the important last ten years of the reign of 
Elizabeth ; a decade which, for various reasons, 
has been inadequately treated by recent English 
historians. 

MAKTIN A. S. HUME. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

PAOB 

Change in the European situation caused by the defeat of the 
Armada — The Jesuits and the English Mission — The unmask- 
ing of Philip's designs — The influence of England's new 
maritime strength — Spain's renewed preparations for the 
struggle I 

CHAPTER II 

Intrigues of the Scottish Catholics with Spain — James's share in 
them — The "Spanish blanks" — The Parliament of 1593 — 
Fears of a new Spanish invasion — John Cecil's mission from 
Scotland to Spain — The influence of Father Persons — The 
Spanish mission to the Scottish Catholic Lords — John Cecil's 
betrayal of the cause 23 

CHAPTER III 

Appeal to Spain of the Irish Catholics — Meeting of the Chiefs in. 
Donegal — The Archbishop of Tuam's mission to Spain — James 
sends another envoy to Spain — The battle of Glenlivat — 
Walter Lindsay in Madrid — Suppression of the Catholic 
Lords in Scotland — Their renewed appeal to Philip — Its 
failure, and the reason for it . . . . . . .50 

CHAPTER IV 

The condition of the Catholics in England — Disagreement between 
the Jesuits and Seculars — Party politics in the English Court 
— Real and pretended plots against the Queen — Father Young's 
confessions — The irreconcilable English refugees — The con- 



xiv CONTENTS 



PAGE 



fessions of Webster — Polwhele's and CoUen's plots — Daniel's 
and Caliill's confessions — Arrest of Father Henry Walpole — 
The doubtful evidence in support of most of the so-called 
plots 80 



CHAPTER V 

The conspiracy of Dr. Lopez — The confessions of Yorke and 
Williams — The alleged connection of the Spanish Ministers 
with the murder plots . . 115 

Appendix to Chapter V . .162 



CHAPTER VI 

The complete separation of the two sections of English Catholics 
— Alarm in England at the Spanish armaments — Drake's last 
voyage — Tyrone's declaration — Promise of Spanish aid — Irish 
emissaries to Spain — ■ The expeditions of Captains Cobos, 
Medinilla, and Cisneros to Ireland — Their description of Ire- 
land — Breakdown of the Spanish Administration — Essex's 
attack upon Cadiz . 165 



CHAPTER VII 

Mission of Lindsay to Eome — Father John Cecil and Pury Ogilvie 
in Rome — Their voyage to Spain — Address of the English 
Catholic irreconcilables to Philip — The advice of Father Per- 
sons — Preparations in Lisbon for the Irish expedition — 
Strength of the armament — Failure and return to Spain — 
Meeting of the Irish chiefs with Cobos in the Monastery of 
Donegal — A new truce with Tyrone 201 



CHAPTER VIII 

Fears of a Spanish invasion of England — English preparations — 
Essex's voyage — Lopez de Soto's letters — Strength of the Ade- 
lantado's fleet (1597) — Its inglorious return to Spain — Re- 
newed appeal of the Irish rebels to Spain — Tyrone's discontent 
with the Spaniards — Another truce with Tyrone . . . 242 



CONTENTS XV 



CHAPTER IX 



PAGE 



The two sections of English Catholics and the succession — Arabella 
Stuart versus the Infanta — Lord Beauchamp — Party conflicts 
in England with regard to the peace with Spain — The aims of 
the Jesuits — Paralysis of the Spanish naval administration — 
Renewed alarm in England — Its groundlessness — Parleys with 
Tyrone — His renewed appeals to Spain — Critical condition of 
the English rule in Ireland — ^The battle of Armagh . .271 



CHAPTER X 

Letters of John Colville — James intrigues with the Catholic Powers 
—The " Wisbech Stirs "—Recriminations against the Jesuit 
faction — The murder plot of Squire and Rolls — Father Wal- 
pole's connection with it — The desire of the Arcliduke for 
peace with England — Successes of the Irish rebels — Discontent 
of Essex — His government in Ireland — The march through 
Munster — His parley with Tyrone — His disobedience and re- 
turn to England — His arrest 310 



CHAPTER XI 

The aspect of the succession question in England — Cecil and Essex 
— Negotiations for peace with Spain — Renewed alarm of 
Spanish invasion in England — Measures for defence — Pro- 
bable intentional exaggeration of the fears for political reasons 
— James continues to intrigue with the Catholics for support 
— The Pope's offer to him — Fitzherbert's address to Philip re- 
specting the Scottish advances — Lord Semple's mission to 
Madrid — The future religion of England trembling in the 
balance 361 



CHAPTER XII 

Essex in disgrace — His attempts at reconciliation — Small Spanish 
help to the Irish rebels — The mission of Mateo de Oviedo, 
Archbishop of Dublin, and Martin de la Cerda to Ireland — 
Resolution in Spain to aid Tyrone actively — Irish envoys to 
Spain — Helplessness of Philip and discouragement of Tyrone 



xvi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

— Father Persons' appeals to Philip to take a decided course 
on the English succession — Discussions in the Council of 
State on the subject — Father Creswell's efforts in Madrid — 
The projects of the Earl of Bothwell — Essex and James. Abor- 
tive peace negotiations with Spain — Essex's rebellion and 
execution 39^ 



CHAPTER XIII 

The change in the succession question in consequence of the death 
of Essex — The secret understanding between James and Cecil 
— James's new attitude towards the Catholics — Lord Montjoy 
in Ireland — Occupation of Derry— Disappointment of Tyrone 
and O'Donnell with Spain — La Cerda's mission to Ireland — ■ 
Preparations for a new Spanish expedition to Ireland — Carew 
in Munster — Sailing of the expedition — O'Sullivan Beare — 
The Spaniards in Kinsale — The siege — The Spaniards isolated 
in Kinsale, Castlehaven, Dunboy, and Baltimore — Defeat of 
Tyrone — Capitulation of Kinsale — The O'Sullivans and Dun- 
boy — O'Donnell in Spain — Death of O'Donnell — Exodus of 
the O'Sullivans, pardon of Tyrone, and the pacification of 
Ireland 438 



CHAPTER XIV 

Mission of Thomas James to Spain — The policy of Philip III. to- 
wards the English succession — Discussion in the Council of 
State — The new policy adopted too late — Cecil's conduct — 
Dynastic intrigues in England — Arabella Stuart's strange 
behaviour — Suggested explanation — Lord Beauchamp — 
Attempted flight of Arabella — Death of Elizabeth— Cecil 
triumphant — Extinction of the last hope of establishing 
Catholic supremacy by means of foreign intervention . .478 



INDEX 



5" 



TREASON AND PLOT 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Change in the European situation caused by the defeat of the Armada 
— The Jesuits and the English Mission — The unmasking of 
Philip's designs — The influence of England's new maritime 
strength — Spain's renewed preparations for the struggle. 

With the flight of the great Armada, beaten and 
demoralised, into the wild equinoctial gales of the 
northern seas, the political and religious problems 
of Europe underwent a change, which, like most 
far-reaching changes, was only very gradually and 
imperfectly realised by those immediately concerned. 
For a hundred years Spain had imposed herself upon 
the world to an extent entirely unwarranted by her 
native resources and the numbers of her population : 
she had discovered, subjected, and organised a vast 
continent : the commercial and mineral wealth of 
both East and West had been proclaimed as her 
monopoly ; and throughout the world her arrogant 
claim to superiority, and to the leadership of 
orthodox Christianity, had been humbly conceded 
by all but a few who were regarded as little better 
than blasphemers for their denial of Spanish 
supremacy. 

A 



2 TREASON AND PLOT 

What was the secret that had carried this bundle 
of antagonistic racial and political units, only 
nominally a nation, irresistibly through Europe 
and America, and had in one leap raised Castile 
to the first place amidst the powers of the world ? 
Not the wealth of the Indies alone ; for, thanks to 
a vicious fiscal system, the gold and silver of the 
mines enriched every nation of the earth more than 
they did Spain. Not natural gifts of energy, intellect, 
or valour ; for these were not specially conspicuous in 
the Spanish people either before or after the fleeting 
period of their country's greatness. Not the impetus 
of a united nationality stirred to patriotic ambition 
by the consciousness of strength derived from com- 
munity of soil, race, and institutions; for such a 
feeling could have no place amongst peoples varying 
in origin, tongue, traditions, and national history, 
who were loosely bound together with the monarch 
for their only tie. 

The cause of Spain's sudden greatness, as of her 
inevitable fall, must be discovered in the circum- 
stances of her unification. Unity of some sort was 
vitally necessary if the ambitions of her successive 
rulers were to be fulfilled; and, failing the slow 
process of racial amalgamation, for which they could 
not wait, Ferdinand the Catholic and his immediate 
successors deliberately forged in the fires of the 
Inquisition the weapon with which they were to 
conquer half the world. The Spanish nation was 
bound together by the spiritual exaltation which 
came of the religious persecution of the minority 
by the majority. The Inquisition was popular, 
powerful, and revered by Spaniards at large, because 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

it flattered their pride with the idea that their faith 
alone had divine sanction, and that God had en- 
dowed them with the exclusive right of imposing 
that faith upon the rest of the world. They were 
a chosen people, spiritually superior to others ; and 
in the sacred cause for which they were specially 
ordained to fight, cruelty, rapine, and blood were 
praiseworthy and gracious in the sight of the Lord. 
Mystic fervour and a belief in their mission to 
exterminate, at any cost, those who had strayed 
into the service of the devil, gave to Spaniards in 
the sixteenth century the unity necessary for their 
rulers to use them as a solid weapon for mundane 
ends. Much as they might hate each other nation- 
ally, they were all knit together in the fierce assur- 
ance that they were a divinely favoured people with 
a mission. This was the spirit which explained 
their burning enthusiasm and carried the ferocious 
men-at-arms of Charles and Philip victorious through 
the world. Their fervour and confidence dazzled 
the eyes of other nations to the weakness of 
material resource which lay behind their haughty, 
cool assumption of unquestionable superiority. 
Such claims would have been resented generally, 
as they were by a few in England, but for the 
absolute conviction of every individual Spaniard 
that he was on the side of God ; and that, as a 
consequence of this solidarity, all other men were 
as mire beneath his feet. The moral effect of such 
a conviction was incalculable. 

The first staggering blow dealt at this source of 
power fell upon Spanish hearts with the defeat of 
the Armada. All that spiritual superstition, all 



4 TREASON AND PLOT 

that frantic devotion could do for the supposed 
invincible fleet had been done. Prayers for its 
success had been offered up by millions ; sacred 
relics and bones of saints enough to stock a 
cemetery had been carried forth in processions 
innumerable ; Pope and cardinals had blessed and 
sprinkled ; kings, princes, and peoples had fasted 
and sacrificed ; all Spain and Portugal were aflame 
with religious exaltation and the positive assurance 
of an easy victory over God's enemies. For such an 
expedition on such an errand defeat was surely im- 
possible, and in that firm belief the soldiers, at 
least, on the fleet went forth to liberate a yearn- 
ing people held captive by a small minority of 
heretics. 

But even as the Armada, under its craven admiral, 
hustled powerlessly up the Channel in the six days' 
running fight with foes that eluded and harassed 
it, the first sinister cry went up from hearts already 
disillusioned and well - nigh broken : " God has 
forsaken us ;^' and when the battered wrecks of 
the ships that were left of the panic-stricken fleet 
slowly crept back to Santander with the few famished 
and plague- stricken survivors of their gallant com- 
panies, the loss of material power, great as it was,, 
that the country had suffered, was the smallest part 
of the disaster. For the conviction of divine aid, 
the certainty of being on the right side, which had 
been the secret of Spain's strength for a hundred 
years, was wounded now beyond surgery, and 
Spaniards, if they fought at all, must in future 
fight on an equality with the rest of mankind with 
worldly weapons and skill. 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

The disillusionment came home but slowly to the 
mass of the Spanish people. The first wail of 
sorrow that went up was mingled with a cry for 
vindication and revenge. The towns of Spain, one 
after the other, offered new contributions, ruined 
and desolate as the country was, in order that a 
more powerful expedition than before should at 
once be jfitted out under other commanders and 
teach a lasting lesson to the insolent heretic, before 
whom Medina Sidonia had fled helplessly. But as 
the winter wore on, and the extent of the catastrophe 
was better understood, the gloom darkened. One 
of Philip's own confessors boldly told him, that 
" though his prayers and processions were very good 
things, yet it was certain that God gave ear to other 
voices before his," ^ and all prayers on account of 
the Armada were publicly ordered to be discontinued 
(22nd October). "The better informed," we are 
told, " begin to think that if all these ships are 
lost it will be impossible to make another expedi- 
tion next year" (22nd October). And so with 
dismay the Spanish people gradually realised — as 
their king had done from the first — that they them- 
selves were in danger of attack, and that, far from 
thinking of inflicting punishment upon England, 
they must strain every nerve first to defend their 
own coasts and commerce from devastation. " If 
Drake should take the sea," wrote the Venetian 
ambassador, " and meet the Peruvian fleet or make 
a descent on the shores of Spain, he would find no 
obstacle to his depredations, and he might even 
burn a part of the ships that have come back, for 

^ Lippomano to fhe Doge, October i, 1589. Venetian Papers. 



6 TREASON AND PLOT 

they are lying scattered without troops to guard 
them, as all the soldiers reach home sick and in 
the bad plight I have reported." ^ 

" If Drake were to go to the Azores now," wrote 
the same authority, "he would not only ruin the 
whole of the Indian trade, but could quite easily 
make himself master of the islands." ^ Philip put 
as brave a face upon it as he could, and talked 
about selling his silver candlesticks to arm for an 
attack upon England ; but he knew full well now 
that before he could hope to prevail over his foe 
he must learn the lesson to which he had been 
deaf for years, and must face the English with 
ships as mobile and sailors as skilful as their 
own. For, thanks to Drake and his school, the 
ship was henceforth a fighting entity of itself, not 
only a machine for carrying fighters into the fray. 
A new maritime power indeed was born of the 
knowledge. England had the start, and only by 
patient work and slow degrees could Spain hope to 
change her material and tactics to meet the new 
departure. 

With his laborious stolidity Philip turned his 
hand to the creation of a new navy. He was 
desperately impecunious ; the Pope had scornfully 
refused the subsidy he had promised to the Armada, 
and the Cortes, failing to understand the need for 
the laying down of the new ships, of which the 
construction would occupy years, haggled over their 
voluntary subsidy. But to Drake and the English 
seamen, at least, the position was as clear as it was 

1 Lippomano to the Doge, October 22. Venetian Calendar. 
2 Ibid., December 8. 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

to Philip : Spain was no match for England upon 
the sea until her ships and tactics were radically 
altered. It was seen that religious exaltation and a 
belief in a monopoly of divine protection, however 
good in their way as aids, were bad substitutes 
for the ordinary mundane precautions for securing 
victory. Thenceforward, therefore, the material 
aspect of the attempt of Philip to impose Catholi- 
cism upon England by force of arms assumed an 
entirely new condition, and for years to come Spain 
was forced to stand upon the defensive to save her 
world-wide commerce from utter destruction. A 
direct attack upon England itself was out of the 
question. 

The altered conditions of warfare springing from 
the defeat of the Armada almost coincided in point 
of time with a political event of still greater mag- 
nitude, namely, the discovery of Philip's real aims. 
Long before the rulers of Spain had dreamt of 
raising a vast empire on a basis of religious bigotry, 
it had been an article of faith that a close alliance 
was necessary, in the interests of both parties, be- 
tween England and the possessor of the Flemish 
seaboard ; and when the crowns of Castile and 
Aragon passed to the House of Austria-Burgundy, 
this vital necessity passed with it. Spain with a 
friendly England could always hope to hold France 
in check ; but with England against her, and in 
close union with France, Spain's main road to 
Flanders was closed ; and France, free from suspi- 
cion of her neighbour across the Channel, was able to 
oppose the objects of Aragon in the Mediterranean 
and Italy. This had been the reason that Charles V., 



8 TREASON AND PLOT 

champion of Catholicism though he was, had not 
dared to quarrel with Henry VIII. or Edward VI., 
notwithstanding the Protestant reformation and the 
repudiation by Henry of his lawful Spanish wife. 
This was the reason for Philip's marriage with his 
elderly and unprepossessing cousin, Mary of Eng- 
land ; and this was the reason why the Catholic 
King for thirty years left no stone unturned to win 
without war Elizabeth and England to the Catho- 
lic side, or at least to neutrality. In vain had his hot- 
headed councillors alternately prayed and hectored 
at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and urged that 
the Catholic majority in England should be aided 
to throw off the yoke of the heretic Queen. In vain 
did ambassador after ambassador try to force the 
King's hands by fomenting treason in England and 
openly advocating war. Philip knew better than 
they that he dared not openly break with Elizabeth 
whilst jealous France was on his flank and his own 
Netherlands were in full revolt against him. So he 
had meekly to see his commerce ruined, his treasure 
stolen, his subjects hanged by English pirates, and 
his coasts and colonies violated for thirty years 
before he decided to risk everything on the issue 
of an invasion. Religion was his stalking-horse, 
and an effective one ; but he would never have 
gone to war with England on religious grounds for 
the sole purpose of making her Catholic. It was 
necessary for him that she should be Catholic 
because he needed her friendship and a cessation 
of her aid to the Protestant Netherlanders ; and 
when it became evident, even to his slow mind, 
that, for all her dexterous balancing and religious 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

coquetry, Elizabeth meant to stand permanently to 
the Reformed doctrines and her own supremacy, he 
was forced to fight or to throw up the sponge. Philip, 
both from character and on principle, loved to work 
in the darkness ; and it was the first condition of 
success in the use of his religious instrument that 
his agents should not be aware of the political 
objects he had ultimately in view. During all the 
years they had paltered with treason and murder in 
England they had chafed and marvelled at their 
master's cold irresponsiveness to their activity. With 
hardly an effort in the beginning of Elizabeth's 
reign he might have turned the scale, and have 
made England at least as Catholic as Henry VIII. 
left it when he died. What his agents failed to 
understand was, that whilst it was desirable for 
Philip that England should be sufficiently Catholic 
to be friendly with him and to refrain from helping 
his discontented subjects, it was infinitely better 
for his ends that she should remain heretic and 
neutral than that she should become Catholic and 
French; for if Elizabeth fell, the next heiress to 
the English crown was Mary Stuart, practically a 
French princess under the control of ambitious and 
capable kinsmen of the same nation. So for years 
before he struck his blow the King's crafty intri- 
gues went on to make Mary Stuart a subservient 
tool, and to pledge and subsidise the Guises for 
the promotion of their ambitions in France, in order 
that they might not interfere with Spanish aims in 
England. 

During the period that Mary was captive the 
religious position in England underwent a complete 



lo TREASON AND PLOT 

change, and at the time of her death the contending 
elements on both sides were finally ranged. The 
mass of the English people, except in London and 
the eastern counties, were Catholics ; but the doc- 
trines and practice of the Romish Church had 
remained more or less in a fluid state until the 
publication of the Trentine decrees in 1564. The 
cautious compromise devised by Elizabeth and Cecil 
had conciliated many, and for the first few years of 
the reign the population at large, although they 
might regret the avowedly papal regime of Mary 
Tudor, outwardly conformed to the established wor- 
ship, and, but for the action of extreme parties on 
both sides, would probably have ended in complete 
conformity. Like Philip himself, Elizabeth and her 
chief adviser were influenced in their action by poli- 
tical rather than religious considerations ; but the 
English Protestant clergy and laymen, who in the 
days of the Marian persecution had found shelter 
and hospitality in Switzerland, came back to the 
land of their birth burning with zeal to purge the 
worship of their Church of all traces of Rome. To 
them political considerations were nothing. In the 
days of their exile they had seen simplicity and 
adherence to the very word of Scripture made the 
test of holiness by communities and men whom they 
knew to be good, and they were rebellious and im- 
patient to see that the Protestant English Church, 
for whose establishment they had yearned and 
prayed, included in its practice much which savoured 
of their Romish persecutors. Vestments, lights, 
incense, and images to them were anathema in any 
circumstances, and Protestant nonconformity was 



INTRODUCTORY ii 

born of the determination of earnest men to prefer 
religious purity to political expediency. Violence 
and rancour on the one extreme were answered by 
violence and rancour on the other. The laymen of 
Catholic leanings, offended at the Puritanism of 
many of the Reformed clergy, began to absent them- 
selves from church, and sought again the ministra- 
tions of priests of the old faith. The country was 
flooded by ardent young missionaries from Allen's 
Seminary at Douai, who, in disguise and at the risk 
of their lives, went from one Catholic house to 
another, exhorting and encouraging Englishmen to 
stand firm to the faith of their fathers. Their first 
mission was unquestionably religious alone, but 
unfortunately in some instances, as was the case in 
the Northern rebellion, they were too useful as mes- 
sengers and instruments, or too zealous, entirely 
to avoid participation in treason. In 1579 the 
activity of the Seminarist missionaries aroused the 
jealousy of the young, vigorous, militant organisa- 
tion whose especial province was propaganda, and 
the Jesuits, much to the annoyance of the secular 
priests, insisted on taking a leading part in the Eng- 
lish mission.^ They, too, came at first on a purely 

^ The disturbances in the English College at Rome, an offshoot of 
Allen's Seminary at Douai, if they were not deliberately fomented by 
the Jesuit interest, at least gave the Society its opportunity for cap- 
turing the Seminaries, and for intruding itself into the English Mis- 
sion. It was not without hesitation, however, that the ruling Jesuits 
allowed Persons and Campion to start on their mission to England. 
Even before they left, the English seculars were in fear that the Jesuit 
fathers would assume an authority out of proportion to their numbers, 
and would meddle in state affairs. To calm this fear, the rules for 
guidance of the Jesuits of the English Mission (1580) strictly laid 
down that " they must not mix themselves with affairs of state, nor 
in England must they speak, or allow others to speak in their presence, 



12 TREASON AND PLOT 

religious errand ; but one at least of them, Father 
Persons, soon changed his plans, and thencefor- 
ward until her death every plot for the liberation 
of Mary Stuart was directed and managed by Jesuits 
under the direction of Persons, whose masterful 
energy and zeal drew Allen along the same path. 
Their treason and disloyalty were punished by pro- 
scription and persecution/ The Jesuits saw plainly 
after the fate of the Duke of Norfolk and the collapse 
of the Northern Earls that Elizabeth would never 
be overturned except by the aid of a foreign force. 
Whence could such a force come ? Not from 
France, for there the religious divisions were more 
acute even than in England ; and Catharine de 
Medici only kept her footing by preventing either 
Catholics or Huguenots from monopolising the 
national power. The Pope might thunder excom- 
munications, but he could send no galleys out of 

against the Queen, except perhaps in company of those whose fidelity 
has long been steadfastly proved " (quoted by Law from Simpson's 
transcripts, 1085, Brussels Archives). Campion certainly confined 
himself to his religious mission, which he considered invincible, and so 
went to martyrdom. But Persons soon convinced himself that one 
Jesuit political missioner could do more than a hundred of Allen's easy- 
going spiritual priests ; and notwithstanding the solemn oath he took 
to the Catholic Synod, which he secretly convened in Southwark (July 
1580), that the Mission "was purely spiritual, and had no concern or 
knowledge of affairs of state," he soon took the direction of all politi- 
cal plots in England. Thenceforward the Jesuits, very few in number 
at any time in England, constituted themselves a sort of aristocracy of 
missioners, who looked upon the purely religious secular priests as 
underlings, and treated them accordingly, to the indignation of the 
latter, as will be seen in the course of this book. (On the.-;e points see 
Simpson's " Campion ; " T. G. Law's " Jesuits and Seculars ; " " Dod," 
edited by Tierney ; Knox's " Life and Letters of Cardinal Allen ; " 
"The Archpriest Controversy" (Camden Society), &c.) 

^ In 1585 it was made high treason for any priest ordained abroad 
to enter England. 



INTRODUCTORY 13 

the Mediterranean, and, moreover, was sparing of 
his money ; so to Philip alone could the extreme 
Catholics and the Jesuits of England look for the 
liberation of their country from Protestantism. 
But at what cost ? Philip clearly would not incur 
the risk of invading England for the purpose merely 
of placing upon the throne a half-French princess, 
whose son might, for aught he could foresee, be 
more heretical and inimical to Spain than Eliza- 
beth ; and who, in any case, would transfer with 
his crown to England the ancient Scottish tradition 
of close alliance with France. So the Jesuits set 
to work to overcome this difficulty at the expense 
of England's independence ; and for the last few 
years of the unfortunate Mary's life they carefully 
enmeshed her in the toils, until she had solemnly 
disinherited her son for heresy and made Philip 
of Spain her heir. Cautiously, too, Persons and 
his satellites in Flanders, Rome, and Spain spread 
the idea of Philip's own descent from Edward III., 
in order that in due time he might claim to succeed 
Mary to the English crown. But when the execu- 
tion of Mary forced the Spanish king to some extent 
to show his hand, and to unmask his political aim, 
there came the inevitable parting of the ways be- 
tween loyal and disloyal English Catholics. The 
extraordinary intrigues by which Pope Sixtus V. 
was hoodwinked as to English succession until it 
was too late for him to withdraw his promised 
support to the Armada, has been told by me else- 
where,^ and when at last the expedition failed, joy 
and contentment, rather than sorrow, were expressed 

^ Introduction to the Calendar of Spanish State Papers, vol. iv. 



14 TREASON AND PLOT 

by the Pope and cardinals at the Catholic defeat/ 
For years Philip had endeavoured to keep in the 
background, even from his confidential agents, his 
political design to subjugate England to Spain ; 
but long before the Armada sailed the Scottish 
Catholics at the Vatican, jealous of their king's 
right to the English succession, the French car- 
dinals, apprehensive of a Spanish dominion over 
England, the Welsh priests, led by Owen Lewis, 
Bishop of Cassano, and most of the English seculars, 
Carthusians and Benedictines, none of whom had 
any love for the pushing Jesuits, were busy with 
plans that should make England a Catholic country 
without submitting her to a foreign yoke. 

When the Armada suffered catastrophe, the secret 
was out for all the world, and Philip could work 
in the dark no longer. Thenceforward it was 
evident that any direct attempt of his against 
England would probably meet with the open or 
covert opposition, not only of Protestants, but of 
the Papacy itself and of all Catholics but the 
Spaniards, the Jesuits, and the more extreme of 
Philip's English refugee pensioners ; for the Pagets, 
Morgan, Hesketh, the Treshams, and many others 
who had lived on his bounty, declined to sell their 
country for their mess of pottage. Whilst the death 
of Mary Stuart and the defeat of the Armada thus 
laid Philip's real designs open to the world, two 
other events shortly afterwards still further altered 
the possibilities of his action against England. The 
arrogant ambition of Guise, secure as he was of 
Spanish support and money, drove Henry III. into 

^ Spanish and Venetian Calendars, 1588-89. 



INTRODUCTORY 15 

the arms of the Huguenots. The next heir to the 
French throne was Henry of Navarre, the Protestant 
prince, bound close in alhance and friendship with 
Elizabeth. If France and England became allied 
Protestant powers, then indeed were Spain and 
Catholic supremacy in Europe doomed ; and the 
danger to Philip in France was infinitely more 
pressing than in England. Money, support, and 
material aid were consequently forthcoming in 
plenty to enable the Holy League to crush the 
Huguenots once for all, though Spain and the 
Indies were bled almost to the last doubloon. 
Again circumstances tore away the screen behind 
which Philip always chose to fight. The screen 
in this instance was Guise's love of the Catholic 
Church; but the murder of Guise (December 1588) 
forced Philip into the open, and the assassination 
of Henry III. (August 1589) completed the ex- 
posure. Spain found herself in the position which 
for centuries she had avoided, namely, that of being 
at war with France with England also against her. 
It was a mere necessity of her continued existence 
as a great power that the Protestant faith should 
not be officially established in France ; and yet 
Philip dared not employ all his national resources 
in a war without ensuring some sort of stability 
for the objects for which he was making such great 
sacrifices. It was clear that the weakly ambitious 
and shifty Mayenne, the figure-head of the League 
now that his brother Guise was dead, could not be 
depended upon. Navarre would surrender no part 
of his birthright ; and the Spanish king was obliged 
to fight openly either for the Spanish domination 



1 6 TREASON AND PLOT 

or the dismemberment of France. Henry IV. 
promptly seized the advantage that such a position 
gave to him, and assumed the sympathetic rdle of 
the patriotic champion opposed to the foreign sub- 
jection of his beloved country, whilst the League 
had to bear the reproach of fighting against the 
independence of France with the aid of Spanish 
pikes ; and Philip himself was forced again into the 
position he hated, namely, to appear to Christendom 
as an ambitious prince using religion as a cloak for 
his greed of territory. 

It will thus be seen that the words with which 
this chapter opened were justified. Up to the period 
which followed the defeat of the Armada, Philip, 
in his attempts to impose Catholic orthodoxy upon 
England, by diplomacy, by revolution, or by force, 
had figured as a devout sovereign bent only upon 
restoring religious unity to the world, and re- 
establishing the supremacy of the Church of which 
he was the divinely appointed champion. But from 
1590 onward it was patent to everybody that his 
ultimate object was the political subjection of the 
country, in the interests of the Spanish monarchy, 
in which he would be opposed by most of Europe ; 
whilst it was equally obvious that the crusading 
zeal of his people, which had been a main source 
of his potency, had received a shock from which 
it was not likely to recover. The attempts, there- 
fore, of the Catholics to regain supremacy in England 
divide themselves into two distinct periods — the 
first, from the accession of Elizabeth to the end of 
1589; and the second, from 1590 until the death 
of the Queen in 1603. The events of the former 



INTRODUCTORY 17 

of these periods have been described fully and 
frequently : the participation of Mary Stuart in 
the various conspiracies for her benefit has been 
discussed ad nauseam; the Spanish intrigues to 
regain by any means, fair or foul, Philip's hold 
upon England are well known ; the efforts of the 
English Catholics themselves to impose their views 
upon Elizabeth and Cecil in the early years of the 
reign have been dealt with exhaustively ; ^ and the 
long series of juggles by which Elizabeth's marriage 
was utilised for similar ends have also been recently 
detailed.^ But the story of the final struggles for 
Catholic supremacy in the new set of circumstances 
which has just been explained from 1590 to 1603 
has never yet been fully told by the light of modern 
research ; and it is the object of this book to set 
forth in some detail the abortive series of intrigues 
by which, during the last ten years of Elizabeth's 
reign, various sections of Catholics — English, Scot- 
tish, and Irish — endeavoured to avail themselves of 
foreign support for the objects they had in view. 

These intrigues were on more than one occasion 
in this period dangerously promising of success ; 
but the vigilance of the Queen's Government, the 
growing strength of the Protestant party in the 
country, the repugnance to Jesuit methods and to 
foreign domination on the part of most English 
Catholics, seculars, regulars, and laymen, together 
with the disillusionment and exhaustion of Spain 
and the wonderful good fortune of Elizabeth, ended 

^ By Camden, Hollingsliead, Froude, Lingard, the present writer 
(in the Spanish State Papers and Life of Burghley), and many others. 
2 " The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth," by Martin A. S. Hume. 

B 



1 8 TREASON AND PLOT 

by frustrating them all, and finally made England 
a Protestant country. 

The changed position of Philip towards England 
caused by the circumstances preceding the year 
1590 was accompanied by a no less important 
variation in the attitude of Elizabeth's Govern- 
ment towards Spain. Drake and the newer school 
of seamen had always proclaimed, and had them- 
selves demonstrated, the hollowness of Spain's tra- 
ditional claim to overwhelming power. Seconded 
by the liberal, or Protestant, element in the English 
Council, they had never ceased to urge the Queen 
to cripple her foe, boldly and decisively, by means 
of large national operations against his own country 
or fleet. But they had against them the Queen's 
parsimony, Burghley's love of compromise, and the 
traditional dread and respect of Spain, England's 
ancient ally, which inspired the more conservative 
councillors of the Cecil party. The latter were 
content with the punishment inflicted on the Ar- 
mada and with the loss of prestige sufi'ered by 
Spain, and were in favour of limiting their future 
operations to profitable sporadic attacks upon Span- 
ish commerce. The failure of the English attack 
upon Portugal in 1589, in the interest of the pre- 
tender, Don Antonio, was unjustly laid to the fault 
of Drake. In any case, the Queen was deeply 
ofi'ended at the result of the expedition, and for 
the rest of his life the great seaman lived some- 
what under a cloud ; whilst the cautious, old- 
fashioned statesmen endeavoured to avoid a renewal 
of the national war with Spain, and the more 
adventurous spirits were content to reap such ad- 



INTRODUCTORY 19 

vantage as they might by plundering Spanish 
galleons and fighting the King of Spain under 
the banners of Henry of Navarre or the United 
Provinces. This unenterprising, indirect warfare 
gave to Philip the opportunity he so sorely needed 
of creating a navy of a more mobile type than he 
had previously possessed. It was seen that, for the 
purpose of attack or evasion, swiftness and handi- 
ness were his first desiderata ; and whilst his ports, 
both home and colonial, were relatively safe from 
attacks during Drake's disgrace, they were busy 
turning out vessels of a newer type with which the 
commerce of the Indies might be safely conducted ; 
and, when opportunity offered, England herself might 
be attacked.^ Fast sailing " galley-zabras," armed 

^ That this was still Philip's ultimate object is seen from the 
instructions he gave to Commander Moreo, his representative to the 
Princes of the League (May 1589), Paris, MSS. National Archives, 
Spain, K. 1449: — "As tending also to the promotion of the Catholic 
faith, you will accept in the form which appears most convenient the 
offer made to me by the Duke of Mayenne to give me ports and other 
facilities for my Armada on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany to 
operate against England, with the power of drawing shi]is, seamen, &c., 
for the Armada from those coasts." In September of the same year 
1589 Mendoza wrote to Philip from Paris advocating the purchase of 
Boulogne from Epernon, who, he says, is willing to sell the place for 
40,000 crowns ; or otherwise that it should be captured by force. He 
says : " With these two ports (Boulogne and Calais) at your Majesty's 
command, the enterprise (against England) could be effected very 
rapidly, even in the winter ; and at a very much smaller cost than the 
fitting out of a fresh Armada in Sf)ain next summer or autumn." 
From Philip's cool reply to this it is evident that his eyes were still 
fixed upon Brittany, and that the collection of a Spanish fleet in 
Boulogne to attack England was no part of his plan at that time. In 
January 1590 Diego Maldonado sent an elaborate report to Philip 
with regard to the possibility of fitting out a fleet on the Brittany 
coast. This led to the seizure shortly afterwards of the port of Blavet, 
which continued to be the Spanish naval bise in France until the 
signature of the peace of Vervins in 1598 (Spanish Calendar). 



20 TREASON AND PLOT 

treasure-ships, were Iniilt in Havana in considemble 
numbers. Tisbon, Cadiz, Sautander, and Ferrol 
contxibuted aralleons built from En2:lish and Flemish 
designs, and armed not infrequently by English 
bronze cannon smuggled into Spain by Scottish, 
German, and other ships. ^ In the meanwhile hired 
squadrons of armed merchantmen were organised 
to protect the communications between Spain and 
Flanders by the Channel; and by the yeai* 1592 
IMiilip once more was in possession of a royal navy, 
less pretentious and splendid in appearance than 
the Armada, but much more etiective for the 
service required of it.^ These preparations did not 
escape the notice of the English spies in Spain, or 
diminish in the telling ; and periodical scai'es, with, 
as we see now, but small justiticatiou, kept English 
sailors on the alert for a possible descent upon the 
coasts of Great Britain ; the Spanish base upon the 
Brittany coast giving ever-present point to the 
alarm. Hawkins's great preparations in the winter 
of 15S9 to attack the returning Indian treasure 
fleet were rendered useless because the Queen in 
a panic forbade the expedition from leaving the 
Channel. If Drake's and Balegh's policy had been 
followed, the English tleet would have sailed to 
Corunna and have destroyed the Spanish naval 

^ Kiohard Horton writes thus from Madrid, April 1591 (Hatfield 
Papei-iS, part 4) : — " Aqvii recibimos cadv^ dia en qiiantidad artilleria de 
Ingleten-a, por via de Lubeck, Embden, Bremen, y Hambui^ ; y la 
llevan los mercaderes de alia siu sospecha con navois cargados con 
carbon. Todo hace el dinero ! " 

^ At the period in ques^tion (1592) there wei-e 75 ships ready for sea 
in the King's service, of which 23 were tine new galleons of 700 to 
1000 toi;s each ; besides 40 more of such galleons in coui-se of con- 
struction (Corbett, '' Drake and the Tudor Navy "). 



INTRODUCTORY 21 

armaments there collected ; but the defenHJve and 
commerce -harrying tactics of the more cautious 
spirits prevailed, and the opportunity was missed: 
the only result of the sailing of the fine English 
fleet under Hawkins and Frobisher in 1590 being 
to frighten the treasure fleet of Spain into re- 
maining on the other side of the Atlantic all the 
winter. ''J'he English were, it is true, tfius in com- 
plete command of the sea, and the detention of tJ-jo 
treasure hampered Philip's progress ; but the timid 
policy that now prevailed in Elizabeth's council 
left his focus of activity untouched, and thus gave 
plausible ground for a renewal of the alarm which 
his preparations caused in England. The effect of 
the policy was seen in the following year, when 
Howard and the bulk of the English navy, cruising 
off' the Azores to intercept the delayed Indian 
flotillas, was surprised by the appearance of a much 
stronger Spanish force under Bazan, of fifty-five ships 
with 7200 men, before which the English were 
forced to abandon their expected prey and seek 
safety in flight — all except the Revenye, in which 
Grenville rashly bade defiance to them all and went 
to voluntary destruction. Though Kazan's squadron 
suflered heavily from a storm on its way home, 
its strength partially convinced the English queen 
of the growing danger she had to fear from the 
reconstructed navy of Spain. ]:>ut still, instead of 
striking at the root, Elizabeth and Eurgbley endea- 
voured to meet the danger, of which their spies 
constantly warned them, mainly by helping the 
Erench king to keep the Spanish forces fully 
occupied in France, and by urging Henry to special 



22 TREASON AND PLOT 

activity in Brittany, where her own forces under 
Sir Henry Norreys were also fighting the League. 
The loss of the Revenge, too, and the failure of 
Howard to tackle Bazan's fleet, as well as the 
Queen's annoyance with the rash perverseness of 
Essex, now the leader of the Protestant or war 
party, gave to the Cecils and their adherents the 
upper hand ; and caution and plunder reigned 
supreme as a policy until the spring of 1593, when 
the rehabilitated naval power of Spain was too 
evident and threatening any longer to be trifled 
with. It is at this juncture that we propose to 
take up in detail the story of how the continued 
attempts to make Great Britain Catholic were met 
and frustrated. 



CHAPTER II 

Intrigues of the Scottisli Catholics with Spain — James's share in them — 
The "Spanish blanks" — The Parliament of 1593 — Fears of a new 
Spanish invasion — John Cecil's mission from Scotland to Spain — 
The influence of Father Persons — The Spanish mission to the 
Scottish Catholic Lords — John Cecil's betrayal of the cause. 

As early as the end of 1586, whilst the preparations 
for the Armada were still far from complete, one of 
Philip's most able officers, Bernardino de Mendoza, 
sent to the King a most convincing state paper, 
strongly advising that England should not be attacked 
by a naval invasion, but by a force crossing the Scot- 
tish border ; and the dangers and difficulties which 
Mendoza foretold in the case of a direct attack by 
sea were precisely those which caused the failure of 
the attempt.^ The origin of this advice was the 
oflFer of the Earl of Huntly and the other Scottish 
Catholic Lords to secure and deliver to Spain two 
ports near the English border in which a Spanish 
force might be received ; and in return for Philip's 
support to the Catholic cause, they also professed 
their readiness to aid him with their own forces, and 
to compel James to become a Catholic." At that 
time, however, Philip's main plan of invasion was 
laid ; and although he sent money and fair words in 
plenty to the Scottish Lords, in order, at least, that 

^ Mendoza to the King, December 24, 1586. Spanish Calendar, 
vol. iii. 
2 Ibid. 



24 TREASON AND PLOT 

James might be prevented from helping the English, 
he had long ago made up his mind that the King of 
Scots would be no fit instrument for him. 

The persistent intrigues of the Scottish and French 
Catholics, after the Armada, to bring about a com- 
promise founded upon the conformity of James to 
Catholicism — intrigues to which the King of Scots 
himself was usually a party — confirmed Philip's de- 
termination to exclude James altogether from his 
operations against England. Fortified by the opinions 
of the Jesuit party, voiced by Persons, he was con- 
vinced that the jealousy of Englishmen against the 
Scots would lead them to prefer even a Spaniard to 
a Scotsman as their king ; and the Pontiff himself 
was lectured and rated like a schoolboy by the in- 
solent ambassador, Olivares, for his efforts to bring 
about a settlement ^ by means of the conciliatory 
policy of which the great majority of the English 
Catholics now approved. Philip, however, was still full 
of expressions of sympathy for the Scottish Catholics ; 
for, with the growing difiiculty of a direct naval 
invasion of England, for reasons set forth in the last 
chapter, the possibility of having some of the ports of 
Scotland open to him, if he needed them, was a tempt- 
ing one. Hnntly, Errol, Angus, and the rest of them, 
therefore still appealed to the Spanish King to aid 
their party ; and James played his tricky double game 

^ See Olivares' letters to the King, in Spanish Calendar, vol. iii., 
in ■whicli the Pope is spoken of most disrespectfully, and details given 
of the ambassador's rudeness to him. To such an extent was this 
carried that, when Henry IV.'s approaches to the Pojae and his desire to 
conform were benevolently listened to by Sixtus, not only did Olivares 
insult the Pope grossly, but Spanish friars denounced him as a heretic 
(Tempesti, Vie de Sixtus V.). 



CATHOLIC SCOTS APPEAL TO SPAIN 25 

of taking secret part in the Catholic conspiracies 
against his own Government, in order to keep both 
parties in hand. When, in 1589-90, he was obhged 
to content Elizabeth and the Protestants by going 
through the pretence of punishing the Catholic Lords 
whose accomplice he was, and, during his absence 
in Denmark, entered into negotiations for the for- 
mation of a great Protestant league of Scotland, 
England, the Northern Powers, and Henry IV, (who 
had not yet " gone to Mass "), the Scottish Catholics 
took fright in earnest, and sent a humble emissary, 
one Charles Boyd, to Spain to pray for Philip's 
assistance to a new confederation, which was evi- 
dently pledged to the removal of James.^ As usual 
with him, Philip wanted "further information" 
before he would pledge himself to anything ; but 
this opening was more promising than previous 
approaches from the same quarter, as in this case 
it was evident that James himself was left out of 
the calculation. However this may be, Elizabeth's 
Government were fully informed of the plot, and 
whilst Boyd was still in Madrid avv^aiting Philip's 
answer, Elizabeth, in her own hand, thus wrote to 
James on his return to Scotland from his wedding- 
trip to Denmark in May 1590: "I hope you wyl 
not be careles of such practisis as hathe passed from 
any of yours without your commission, spetially such 
attempts as might ruin your realme and danger you. 
If any respect whatever make you neglect so ex- 
pedient a worke, I am affraide your careles heed 
will worke your unlooked danger." The Queen in- 
dignantly closes by saying that she knows her former 

^ Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. p. 582. 



26 TREASON AND PLOT 

letters of warning have been shown by James to the 
Catholics ; and if she sees her admonitions dis- 
regarded for the future, " I wil hireafter wische al 
well, but counsel no more at all." ^ 

James was not long before he again got his own 
hand into the plot. Scotland was now flooded b}^ 
priests and Jesuits who had fled from the severity of 
Elizabeth's penal enactments or had been sent from 
abroad for missionary work,^ and they laboured on 
fertile soil in the discontent aroused, especially in 
the King and nobles, by the parliamentary establish- 
ment in 1592 of the Presbyterian Church Govern- 
ment. This time it was Lord Balgarys and Graham 
of Fentry who took the lead (for Huntly, by his 
recent unprovoked murder of young Murray, was 
extremely unpopular), and Balgarys openly defied 
the Presbytery.^ But the ministers were strong in 
their numbers and in Elizabeth's support ; and the 
Catholic nobles, this time with the full co-operation 
of the King, decided to send to Spain an ambassador 
of more importance than Charles Boyd or Robert 

^ Elizabeth to James, May 1590 (Camden Society). 

^ Pope Clement VIII. liad recently sent James a present of 40,000 
ducats by an envoy, promising liim a regular subsidy of 10,000 ducats 
a month if he would protect the Catholics. 

^ The Church Sessions obtained a warrant for Balgarys' arrest and 
had excommunicated certain persons who had dined in his house. The 
Sessions were gathered for the purpose of appointing a person to 
execute the warrant, when Balgarys went with his followers to the 
place of meeting and made all the ministers present beg his pardon 
and dine with him, they giving for the purpose the meal prepared 
for themselves, "which is usually very splendid." They had also to 
promise never to molest any one again on his account. " He had gone 
thither for the purpose of killing them all, but contented himself with 
their submission at the request of his clansmen who accompanied him " 
(Report of a Scottish Catholic emissary to Spain late in 1 592). Spanish 
Calendar, vol. iv. 



JAMES VI. AND THE CATHOLICS 27 

Bruce of Bemie.^ The person chosen was George 
Ker, brother of Lord Newbottle, who carried many 
letters of recommendation from Catholic nobles, and, 
like Kobert Bruce in 1586, three blank sheets 
signed and sealed by Huntly, Errol, and Angus 
respectively, which were to be filled up when he 
was safely out of reach of the Protestants. He was 
to ask for a body of 30,000 Spanish troops to be 
landed in Scotland, to join with 15,000 men pro- 
vided by the Catholic nobles ; the avowed purpose 
being the seizure of James and the establishment of 
the Catholic religion in Scotland and subsequently 
in England. Ker was caught,^ thanks to the 
vigilance of the English agents, and though his 
blanks told but little, under threat of torture the 
messenger was more communicative, and the story 
was divulged. But not all of it was made public ; 
for he carried with him a secret paper which, until our 
own day, has been hidden "to save his Majesty's 
honour." This extraordinary document is endorsed, 
" Copy of the Scotch King's instructions to Spain, 
which should have been sent by Powry Oge,^ but 

^ Full details of the mission of Kobert Bruce to Spain in 1586 will 
be found in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. 

2 He was actually apprehended by Andrew Knox, minister of 
Paisley, with a number of students of Glasgow University, at Cumray, 
a small island in the mouth of the Clyde, just as he was taking ship for 
Spain, on the 27th December 1592. The conspiracy, so called, of the 
" Spanish Blanks," has been vehemently denounced by many Scottish 
Catholics, and by the present Marquis of Huntly in his " Memorials of 
Aboyne," as a mystification got up by the Protestant party to discredit 
the Catholics, This contention will no longer hold water in view of 
the original document, transcribed by the present writer, in the 
Simancas Archives, and summarised in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 
p. 603, and others in vol. iii. of the same Calendar. 

3 This was Pury Ogilvie, to whose mission to Spain on behalf of 
James in 1 596 I shall have to refer in a subsequent chapter. 



2 8 TREASON AND PLOT 

thereafter were concredit to Mr. George Ker, and 
withdrawn at his taking for the sajety of his 
Majesty's honour" It is in the form of a balanced 
statement of both sides of the question, such as 
Lord Burghley was in the habit of making on all 
important subjects of discussion. "This enterprise 
is one of the greatest that ever was, since it is to 
conquer England, partly by foreign force, and partly 
by some amongst themselves. But since all great 
enterprises ought to be suddenly and resolutely 
prosecuted, this ought to be executed at furthest in 
harvest next." 

This is the statement of the case to be decided, 
and the arguments for and against are set forth 
with the wordy pedantry so dear to James. After 
reciting the readiness of preparations in Scotland, 
and the danger of Elizabeth's learning the secret if 
the execution is delayed, fear is expressed that in 
the meantime also Philip " might dip with her for 
his own particular, which, if it so fell out, would 
disappoint the whole enterprise." ^ The result 
of James's deliberation was, nevertheless, finally 
against present haste. " Wherefore my opinion is 
that it die down, as I said before. In the mean- 
time, I will deal with the Queen of England fair 
and pleasantly for my title to the crown of England 
after her decease, which thing, if she grant it, as it 

^ The approaching reconciliation of Henry IV. to the Catholic 
Church made a rapprochement between Elizabeth and Philip distinctly 
probable at the time, and the air was full of rumours to that effect. If 
the Cecil party had been able to have their way an agreement would 
probably have been made. This would once more have grouped the 
powers on the old lines of national rather than religious interest, and 
the union of England and Scotland under James would then have been 
extremely unlikely. 



JAMES VI. AND THE CATHOLICS 29 

is not impossible, however unlikely, we have then 
attained our design without stroke of sword." ^ This 
secret instruction gives us the key to James's other- 
wise incomprehensible action in the matter. The 
Catholic nobles had only told him half the truth, or 
less, and instead of making use of them, he was their 
dupe. It was not to gain the crown of England for 
him, so much as the control of affairs by the Catholic 
faction, that they sought Spanish aid. When the 
communications finally reached Philip, little indeed 
was heard of James's claim to the English crown, and 
much of the desire of the Catholic Earls to hold him 
prisoner as a tool of their party for the destruction 
of the Reformed doctrines in Scotland and England. 
The exposure of the plot by the capture of Ker and 
Fentry drove Huntly and his friends into open re- 
bellion ; but James, by his dour attitude towards 
the Protestants who had discovered the conspiracy, 
and his tenderness to the Catholic rebels, clearly 
demonstrated his annoyance at the frustration of his 
own crooked plans. Fentry, the least culpable of the 
conspirators, it is true, was executed ; but the power- 
ful Earls, who were far more guilty than their accom- 
plice, as James knew, were allowed to return to their 
strongholds unpunished. What Elizabeth thought 
of the tergiversation of the King of Scots, she her- 
self set forth in a vigorous autograph letter to him 
sent by the hand of her ambassador Bowes at the 
end of January 1593 : "Wonders and marvelles do 
so assail my conceatz, that the long-expected answer 
to matters of such waight as my last letter needs 
not seame strange. Yet suche I see the eminent 

^ Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 215 



30 TREASON AND PLOT 

danger and wel-ny ready approache of your state's 
ruin, your live's peril, and your neighbour's wrong, 
as I may not, to kepe you company, neglect what 1 
should, though you forget that which you ought. I 
am sorry I am driven from warninge to heed, and 
from too much trust to seek a true way how your 
deeds, not your wordz, may make me assurance that 
you be no way guilty of your own decay and other 
danger. Receive therefore, in short, what course I 
mynd to hold. . . . Since you first breathed I re- 
garded alwais to conserve hit {i.e. her regard for 
him) as my womb hit had bine you bare. Yea ; I 
withstode the hands and helps of a mighty king to 
make you safe, even gained by the bloud of many 
my deare subjects' lives. I made myself the bul- 
wark betwixt you and harm, when many a wyle was 
invented to steale you from your land, and make 
other posses your soile. When your best strong- 
holds were in my handes, did I keep them? Nay ; 
I both conserved them and rendered them to you. 
Could I endure that foreigners had a footing in your 
kingdom ? No ; I never left till all the Frenche 
that kept their lives parted from your soile. . . . 
Let me remember you how well I was thanked or 
he rewarded that once brought all the letters of those 
wicked conspirators of the Spanish faction, even the 
selfe-same that still to your eminent peril you have 
conserved in their estates. Was I not so much 
doubted as hit was thought to be an Italian inven- 
tion to make you holde me dearer, and contrived of 
malice not due by cause ? . . . See what encourage- 
ment I received for many wakeful cares for your 
safety. . . . Now of late, by fortunate good hap, a 



ELIZABETH'S INDIGNATION 31 

lewd fellowe hathe been apprehended with lettars 
and instructions. I pray God he be so wel han- 
deled as he may confess all his knowledge in the 
Spanish conspiracie, and that you use not this man 
as slightly as you don the ringleaders of this treason. 
I vowe if you do not rake it to the bottome you wyl 
verefie what many a wise man hathe (viewing your 
proceedings) judged of your guiltiness of your 
own wreck ; with a whining that they wyl you no 
harme in enabling you with so rich a protector (i.e. 
as Spain) that wyl prove in the end a destroyer. I 
have beheld of late a strange dishonourable and 
dangerous pardon, which, if it be true, you have 
not only neglected yourself but wronged me. ... I 
require, therefore, to all this a resolute answer, 
which I challenge of right ; " and then the indig- 
nant Queen demands that sudden retribution shall 
fall upon the conspirators ; and ends with a semi- 
apology for the justified heat of her " too long 
skribling," ^ 

This letter was followed in a few weeks by the 
despatch of Lord Borough to James from Elizabeth 
to urge him to decisive action against the Catholic 
Lords, instead of the make-believe pursuit of them 
which the King was undertaking;^ and simul- 
taneously the Catholics sent a fresh envoy to inform 
Philip of all that had passed. Huntly and Bal- 

^ Elizabeth to James (Camden Society). 

2 James wrote to Elizabeth at this juncture (Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. 
p. 296) promising her emphatically " that they never shall have dwell- 
ing under him who are guilty of so foul a treason, but the Queen's 
helpful hand must be had thereto." He tells her, however, that she 
is quite as much interested as he in excluding the Spaniards from 
Scotland. 



32 TREASON AND PLOT 

garys, they told him, had compelled the burgh of 
Aberdeen to deliver to them the person of the Papal 
envoy, and that " seeing hovr little they can hope for 
from their King," they had employed the Pope's 
subsidy to pay their clansmen in arms.^ 

The two rival organisations of spies, serving the 
interests respectively of the Cecils and Essex, kept 
Elizabeth well informed of all these approaches to 
Spain. Colonel Sir William Semple was known to be 
resident in the Spanish court, always ready to urge 
the case of the Scottish Catholics, and the coming and 
going of the Scottish messengers were fully reported. 
The violent book just published by Persons against 
Elizabeth's government and spread broadcast over 
Europe, and the strong position held by Spain on 
the Brittany coast, joined with the Scottish intrigue 
in exciting alarm in England ; and this was still 
further exacerbated by the war party headed by 
Essex, who were for ever discovering or inventing 
fresh Spanish plots. The result of all this was a 
recrudescence of the severity against the recusant 

^ In the same report (Spanisli Calendai', vol. iv. p. 590) there is a 
curious account of a " miraculous " victory by Huntly with 37 clans- 
men over Argyll with 1 500 soldiers, 500 of the latter being killed, 
without the loss of a single man on the Catholic side. The victory is 
ascribed to the intervention of St, Laurence, Huntly having chosen 
that saint for his patron during the ensuing year (in accordance, it is 
asserted, with an old Scottish custom). Anotlier miraculous story is 
told in the same report about the Earl of Morton, who was a Catholic, 
but had conformed to the Presbyterian Church. When he was about 
to sign the Articles an angel appeared to him and foretold disaster to 
him if he did so. The Earl was alarmed, and " again put on a gold 
crucifix and an Agnus Dei" that he used to wear round his neck. He 
allowed himself subsequently to be persuaded to sign the Articles ; and 
shortly afterwards in an affray with the Johnstoues met with the end 
the angel had predicted, his right hand being smitten off by Johnstone 
himself. 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1593 33 

English Catholics. No distinction was made be- 
tween those of the Jesuit party and the great mass 
of English Catholics, who were proud of the new 
potency of their country under the wise government 
of Elizabeth, and would now have been content, as 
a last resource, with toleration for their faith. Uni- 
formity of doctrine and practice was made a test of 
loyalty, and both Catholics and Puritans equally felt 
the lash. The Cecil party had thus against them 
the extreme men on both sides, and resorted to 
rigid severity in order to hold the middle way. 

In this excited condition of affairs in England 
it was necessary for a large sum of money to be 
spent to place the country into a state of defence. 
No Parliament had been held for four years, but the 
expenses of the Avars in France and Holland, and 
her advances to Henry IV,, had depleted Elizabeth's 
treasurj', and a fervent appeal to the patriotism of 
the Commons had to be made in the spring of 1593. 
The Queen's speech was read by Lord Keeper 
Puckering. It sounds somewhat curious to modern 
ears, for the members were warned that it was " Her 
Majesty's pleasure that the time be not spent in 
devising and enacting new laws, the number of which 
are so great already as it rather burdeneth than easeth 
the subject; but the principal cause of this Parliament 
is that Her Majesty might consult with her subjects 
for the better withstanding those intended invasions 
which are greater than ever before heard of. And 
where heretofore it hath been used that many 
delighted themselves in long orations, full of ver- 
bosity and vain ostentation, more than in speaking 
things of substance, the time that is precious should 

c 



34 TREASON AND PLOT 

not be thus spent . . . and the good hours not be 
lost in idle speeches." "The Queen," he said, "was 
desirous of the advice of her loving people con- 
cerning the defence and preservation of herself, 
her realms and subjects, from the power and oppres- 
sion of a foreign enemy. This enemy was the King 
of Spain, whose malice was increased by his loss and 
shame received in 1588. His resolution was still 
to invade this kingdom, as plainly did appear by 
his building and getting together many ships of 
less bulk and better fitted for service in our seas 
than those greater galleons and galliasses were in 
1588. That he desired some nearer place from 
whence to invade England, and therefore at this 
time was labouring to plant himself in Brittany. He 
had also raised factions in Scotland and conspiracies 
against the King there, finding him an enemy to his 
ambitious designs;" and Puckering, for the Queen, 
then reproached the Commons with the difficulty 
of collecting the supplies voted in past Parliaments, 
and urged them to liberality and a reformed inci- 
dence, so that the wealthy classes should pay their 
full share, ^ The Speaker (Coke), when his turn 
came, fully fell in with the Queen's humour, and 
scoifed at '' JElephantinw Leges." Wherefore, to 
make more laws might seem superfluous, and he 
might ask, " Quid causa ut crescunt tot magna 
volumina legis ? " and answer, "In promptu causa 
est crescit in orbe malum," and much more to the 
same courtly efi'ect. But when, according to custom, 
he prayed the Queen to grant her faithful Commons 
free speech, freedom from arrest, and access to her 

^ Digges, " The Proceedings in tlie Last Four Parliaments of Elizabeth." 



THE PARLIAMENT OF 1593 35 

person, he got a very harsh and grudging answer; 
for Elizabeth still remembered and resented the 
talk about the succession, which had offended her 
in the last Parliament. The Queen's formal reply 
to the address of the Commons struck the same 
note of defiance to Spain. " I fear not all his 
threatenings," she said; "his great preparations and 
mighty forces do not stir me ; for though he cometh 
against me with a greater power than ever was his 
Invincible Navy, I doubt not, God assisting me, 
but that I shall be able to defeat and overthrow him. 
I have great advantage over him ; for my cause is 
just." She had heard, she continued, that certain 
English people resident on the coast had fled inland 
on the approach of the Armada, leaving their towns 
unprotected. " Bat I swear, by God, if I knew 
those persons, or any that shall do so hereafter, I 
will make them know and feel what it is to be so 
fearful in so urgent a cause." In the subsequent 
speeches in the House, the most was made of the 
Scottish intrigues with Spain ; and Sir Robert Cecil 
especially magnified the danger whilst praising 
to the skies the King of Scots' attitude. "The 
King of Spain's malice," he said, " thus daily 
increaseth against us, and seeketh also to stir up 
sedition amongst us by his instruments. The num- 
ber of Papists also daily increaseth, or, at leastwise, 
be more manifested." With only a dissenting voice 
from Francis Bacon, for which the Queen frowned 
upon him for many a day to come, a large subsidy 
was voted to cover four years' supply, and a fero- 
cious new set of penal laws was enacted against 
recusants and Catholics. But directly a few of the 



36 TREASON AND PLOT 

Puritan members dared to talk about the succession, 
they were incontinently clapped into prison, and 
the House was dissolved in a hurry. 

Ralegh's speech on the Spanish plans is inter- 
esting, as confirming the information then being 
constantly sent to Philip by his spies in England, 
namely, that the great fear of the English was of the 
new form of Spanish galleys. It will be recollected 
that the galleys in the Armada had broken down 
and failed utterly. And it is now generally seen 
that the day for galley warfare in the open sea had 
gone by ; but contemporaries had not yet fully 
mastered the fact. It was understood that mobility 
was the secret of success, ; and the new type of 
galley-zabra, which employed both sail and sweeps 
as needed, seemed to onlookers to provide this 
desideratum, together with a seaworthiness not pos- 
sessed by the old galleys.^ Ralegh, after setting 
forth the wide ramifications of Philip's activity, 
continued: "He (Philip) hath so corrupted the 
nobility in Scotland that he hath promised them 
forces to assist the Papists, that were ready to join 
with any foreign forces that would make them 
strong. ... In his own country (Spain) there is 
all possible preparing ; and he is coming with sixty 
galleys, besides other shipping, with purpose, if he 
goes forward and hath good success. We must 
then, if he invade us, have no ships riding at anchor, 
but all will be little enough to withstand him. At 
his coming he fully resolved to get Plymouth, or at 

* Although built on galley lines, these vessels were mainly for sailing ; 
but the possession of sweeps greatly added to their effectiveness in war. 
They uliiniately developed into the frigate or cruiser. 



ALARM IN ENGLAND 37 

least to possess some of the havens this summer 
within our land, and Plymouth is in most danger." 
And then Ralegh again advocated for the hundredth 
time the policy of Drake and the seamen to meet 
and defeat the enemy before he approached England. 
"Now the way to defeat him was this — to send a royal 
army and supplant him in Brittany, and to possess 
ourselves there ; and to send a strong navy to sea, 
and to lie with it on the Cape, and at San Lucar, to 
which places come all his ships with riches from all 
places ; and then we may set upon all that comes." 

How far the alarm expressed by the members of 
the Government of a direct Spanish invasion of 
England was real, it is difficult at this time to say. 
It was the iixed policy of the Essex party to keep 
alive distrust and hatred of Spain in order to pro- 
mote a decisive national war which should give 
final supremacy to the pronounced Protestant party. 
But at this juncture the Cecils and their friends 
were quite as alarmist as the Puritans. And yet 
Lord Burghley was perfectly well aware, from the 
reports of his spy. Chateau Martin, and others in 
Spain, that the naval preparations of Philip in the 
spring of 1593 could hardly be directed to an in- 
vasion of England.^ There were at that time twenty- 

^ The pretext for the alarm was the numerous avowals of the 
priests and others captured of the preparations they had heard were 
being made in Spain for the invasion. Sir William Stanley, it appears, 
had been summoned to Spain to inspect the ships in Ferrol, of which 
he said there were thirty-six which were capable of beating the whole 
English navy. Stanley proclaimed everywhere that he was to com- 
mand 10,000 troops for the expedition, and the landing was to take 
place in Lancashire or at Milford Haven ; and he boasted much, and 
perfectly without warrant, of the co-operation of his great kinsman 
the Earl of Derby, hinting also that Arabella Stuart was to be pro- 



38 TREASON AND PLOT 

eight ships in Lisbon, Seville, &c., destined to go out 
and meet the Indian flotilla, for the purpose of 
protecting it on the voyage home. There was also 
a small squadron, unequipped, at Ferrol, and some 
other ships scattered in the Biscay ports, intended 
for the conveyance of reinforcements to Brittany or 
the south of France. There M^as, therefore, no pos- 
sibility of another Armada in that year ; and the 
expressed alarm of the Cecil party in Parliament, 
and the subsequent action of the Government, may 
be partly explained by a recommendation of Chateau 
Martin to Lord Burghley in April 1593. Writing 
from Bordeaux, he says that the best way to em- 
barrass the King of Spain's action, " et lui rendriez 
pour cette ann^e ses forces inutiles, qui serait un 
grand remede pour les affaires d'ici" {i.e. France), 
will be to spread a rumour that Sir Francis Drake 
is going to attack Portugal, and the spy offers to use 
the " artifices " necessary for setting such a rumour 
afloat. "Mais il est besoin de faire quelque demon- 
stration d'y vouloir employer le dit Sieur Drac, 
parce'que d'un bruit seulement qui a couru en 
Espagne que sa Majestic (i.e. Elizabeth) I'emploiait, 
et qu'elle lui avait deja delivre ses commissions, 
I'Espagne en a 6te quelques jours en tres grande 
alarme ; dont il se pent juger ce que serait lorsque 
Ton y verrait quelque apparence." ^ 

claimed Queen. The attempt, lie announced, was to be made in the 
spring of 1593, "before which they hoped to get Brest." No doubt 
this vapouring on the part of Stanley was for the purpose of frighten- 
ing the English Government, and of forcing Philip on the course desired 
by the English zealots. This view is confirmed in "The State of the 
English Fugitives." (See also Eeports of Spies in 1592 in State 
Papers, Domestic, and Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. 
^ Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 307. 



EXAGGERATION OF THE ALARM 39 

The fact is evident to us now that Philip was in 
far more alarm of the possible attacks of English 
ships upon his treasure fleet, upon his Brittany 
garrisons, or upon his coasts and colonies, than the 
English had reason to be of him, so far as a direct 
invasion was concerned. Don Pedro Valdds, who 
was just ransomed from captivity in England (March 
1593), wrote very apprehensively of the preparations 
in the English ports, and hazarded many guesses 
at the possible destination of the English ships.^ 
Philip had his hands more than full in Erance. 
He was old, ill, and weary ; and he had probably 
already decided in his own slow mind that his 
strength was insufficient, as it obviously was now, 
to repeat the supreme effort of the Armada and to 
attempt a direct invasion of England ; though, as 
usual, he kept his own counsel on the matter. 

It is likely that, so far as the Cecils were con- 
cerned at least, the scare in the English Parliament 
and public was deliberately exaggerated, in order 
that the supplies necessary for the continuance of 
the English aid to Henry IV. against the Spaniards 
in the north of France, and for counteracting the 
Catholic intrigues in Scotland, might be more libe- 

1 Spanish. Calendar, vol. iv. p. 596. Almost every letter at this 
period, also from the Venetian ambassador in Madrid to the Doge 
(Venetian Calendar), speaks of the fear inspired and the depredations 
committed by the large number of English privateers on the Spanish 
and Portuguese coasts ; and constant references are made as to the 
intention of the Spanish armaments being defensive. On the 4th 
April 1593 he writes: "Although no re-ular fleet has saileil from 
England, yet there are about fifty English ships in these waters. 
They are doing most serious damage every day, as the larger part of 
the Spanish ships are built by private individuals on the security of 
about six per cent, on all the goods brought by the Indian fleet." 



40 TREASON AND PLOT 

rally forthcoming. In any case, notwithstanding 
the exciting speeches in Parliament, little was done 
in the matter of naval armament beyond the adop- 
tion of Chateau Martin's recommendation of spread- 
ing rumours of Drake's new commission for sea ; 
and Philip was even allowed to send large reinforce- 
ments to Brittany in the winter of 1593 without 
molestation from the English. This last event, 
however, reawakened the fears of the latter, and 
in the following spring a successful attack was 
made upon the threatening position of the Spaniards 
in Brest harbour and other Breton fortresses in 
Spanish hands. 

Chateau Martin, who was usually well informed, 
pointed out in April-May 1593 to Lord Burghley 
that Spanish intrigues in Scotland were still afoot. 
" lis esperent fort en Espagne une revolte en 
]£cosse. . . , Le roi d'Espagne a bonne envie d'y 
former un parti a sa devotion, et d'y aider avec les 
forces qu'il pourra, s'il y voit tant peu soit-il de fonde- 
ment." ^ Whilst this was being written, a more 
serious embassy than any that had preceded it was 
being sent from the Scottish Catholic Lords to Philip. 
The active intervention of the Jesuit priests in the 
Scottish Catholic conspiracy of 1581-82 had not been 
a success, and in the changed aspect of affairs since 
the failure of the Armada, the Company — as has 
been explained — continued to oppose any scheme 
for the settlement of English affairs which should 
lead to a compromise, or to the doubtful conversion 
of James Stuart. Either the Scottish Catholic nobles 
had now grown reckless, and knowing the price to 

' Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. 



FATHER CECIL SENT TO SPAIN 41 

be paid for Spanish help to their cause, were pre- 
pared to pay it, or else they had satisfied themselves 
finally that Catholicism could never depend upon 
James, and they vv^ere determined to sacrifice him. 
In any case, their nevt^ departure was significant, as 
it brought them in line with the position to which 
the Jesuits had led Mary Stuart before her death, 
namely, to complete dependence upon Spain. 

One of the most able and energetic of Father 
Persons' recruits to his famous English College of 
St. Alban at Valladolid was John Cecil, a Master of 
Arts of Oxford, who in 1589 had been sent from 
Rome, apparently in consequence of the continued 
squabbles in the English Catholic College there. 
He had been despatched to England in the spring of 
1 591, and had thence proceeded to Scotland, where 
he gained the confidence of Huntly, and, disguised 
as a soldier, was now entrusted with an important 
verbal embassy to Spain. ^ The Catholic Lords had 

^ The particulars of this extraordinary man's life up to this period 
may be gathered from his own hitters, under the name of Snowden, 
at Hatfield, and from the intercepted or stolen letters from Father 
Persons, respectively to Dr. Barrett and to Cecil himself, also at Hat- 
field. Although he had been ordained some time before in Rome, and 
was of mature age, he with others were sent for a year's probation to 
Valladolid, to prepare, under the direction of Persons, lor the English 
Mission. Persons was very anxious to promote the prosperity of his 
College, and strove thus to attract zealous men to it, in order that its 
fame might be spread ; and he gives to Dr. Barrett a glowing account 
of these missionaries when they were on the point of leaving for 
England (Hatfield Papers, vol. v. p. 69). Fathers Younger, Blunt, 
Dudley, Lockwood, Rooke, Salloway, Walford, and Almond were sent 
to England from various Spanish ports (1591), Cecil and Fixer, to 
whom a special political mission was given, being despatched from 
Lisbon. This mission was no other than to sound Lord Derby and 
his son as to their willingness to accept the Pretendership to the 
English crown. Father Persons' instructions to them whilst they 
were still at Lisbon are now at Hatfield, having been doubtless handed 



42 TREASON AND PLOT 

been detected on each occasion that they had sent 
either written communications or blanks to Spain. 
Robert Bruce, too, had played them false and be- 
trayed their secrets, and on this occasion, at Whit- 
suntide 1593, "the disguised one," as they called 
Cecil, carried his intelligence in his head instead of 
in his wallet ; bearing only a pre-arranged token of 
confidence to his old rector at Valladolid, Robert 
Persons, who, it was known in Scotland, was Philip's 
principal guide in the aflairs of England. Ruffling 
in doublet and trunks, with a great Flemish rapier 
on his thigh, " a strange garb for his profession," as 
he says, Cecil came to Valladolid in July 1 593, and, 
having told his story to Persons, was instructed to 
draw up a statement of his mission in writing for 
submission to the King. The document is an in- 
structive one, because, amongst other things, it 
explains why Father Persons had suddenly^ been 

to Lord Burghley on their arrival, as both Cecil (under the name of 
Snowden) and Fixer offered their services to him as spies at once. 
Cecil appears to have gone to Lancashire and thence to Scotland, but 
does not seem to have had any information to give to his namesakes at 
that time, for the honourable reasons i^iven in his Snowden letters to 
Cecil, though he bore a token from them which proved that he was 
secretly in their interests (Hatfield Papers, vol. iv.). There is also a 
most unflattering contemporary account of Cecil in Cardinal Vaughan's 
Archives at Westminster (vol. viii. p. 71). He was subsequently one of 
the most active appellants against the Arch priest's authority in Eng- 
land, to which controversy a further reference will be made on a subse- 
quent page. Although he had entered the Jesuit College at Valladolid, 
it is evident that Cecil continued to share the repugnance of most of 
the English scholars in Rome to the Jesuit teachings and methods. 

1 According to Dingley's confession (State Papers, Domestic, August 
1592), Sir V\ illiam Stanley had been told by Persons, when he was in 
Spain in the previous year, that " the King had at last yielded to his 
(Persons') advice to attempt first against England." This refers to the 
proposed descent on the Lancashire coast, which, as I have already 
pointed out, could never have been seriously entered upon in 1592, 



SCOTTISH INTRIGUES IN SPAIN 43 

brought to smile on the Scottish project. Cecil 
gives a long account of events in Scotland following 
on the abortive mission of Ker, and states, for the 
guidance of the Spanish King, how all the nobles 
and country stand affected to the cause, both in the 
Highlands and the Lowlands. There is much 
abuse of the ministers and other Protestants, who 
are said to be unpopular and in a minority, and 
Philip is assured that " the nobles and people are 
sick of this tyranny and are yearning for a remedy, 
and they look to his Majesty (i.e. Philip) for his 
help to restore the Catholic faith." James is re- 
presented — truly enough — as weak, mean, and 
untrustworthy, possessing " no religion or fixed 
purpose ; " and it is evident all through that this 
plot, at all events, was being conducted over the 
Scottish King's head. The demands of the Catho- 
lics was that 3000 foot-soldiers should be sent from 
Spain or Brittany, arms for as many more, and 
stores for two months. They were assured a safe 
harbour and a welcome in Lochryan ; and a sum 
of 100,000 ducats was requested for the payment 
of the Scottish clansmen. The plan was at once to 
seize the King and capture Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
"which they think will be very easy." "They 

especially as Lord Derby was not even sounded as to his co-operation 
—without which a descent upon his country would have been tolly — 
until late in 1593. The fate of the unhappy Richard Hesketh, when 
he did broach the subject to the Earl, conclusively proved to all 
concerned that Sir William Stanley had made too free with his great 
kinsman's name. Whatever Persons may have thought, ever)thing 
tends to show that Philip had by this time lost hope of conquering 
England by an attack on the coast, though he would naturally en- 
deavour to secure a diversion by a feint attack by sea, and by arousing 
the English Catholics to co-operate with his attack from Scotland. 



44 TREASON AND PLOT 

would then reduce the rest of Scotland, and expel 
or capture the principal heretics, and fortify the 
castles, which are all now utterly unprovided. After 
this they would make ready to resist the forces of 
England." They recommended, too, that the traitor 
Sir William Stanley should be sent with his regi- 
ment of Irish and English Catholics from Flanders, 
and a diversion is also suggested by a simultaneous 
descent of the rebel Earl of Westmorland and 
Lord Dacre on the east coast of Scotland at Lord 
Seton's port near Leith. All this had been offered 
to Philip before, and had met with no ready re- 
sponse. But there was this difference on this 
occasion, that instead of suggesting, as before, that 
James might be forced or persuaded to become a 
Catholic, Father Cecil says : " Finally, these gentle- 
men are sure that, with his Majesty's help, they will 
capture the King at once, and will deal with him as 
his Majesty orders!^ ^ 

Persons sent " the disguised one " with his state- 
ment to see Idiaquez, the King's secretary. " He is 
a good man," he tells him, " who has suffered for the 
cause, and full credit may be given to him." "With 
regard to the special business about which he 
comes," the writer reminds Idiaquez, "I have fre- 
quently said that Scottish and English affairs might 
advantageously be taken in hand jointly. The 
difficulties ivhich have previously presented them- 
selves to this will be solved by the message of this 
priest." And then Father Persons grows quite 
enthusiastic about the "plan," which, he says, will 
trouble Elizabeth more than anything else in the 

^ Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



THE JESUITS AND SCOTLAND 45 

world. We shall not be wronging the memory of 
Father Persons by suggesting that his sudden liking 
for the Scottish Catholics' plan ^ arose from the fact 
that their amended programme was intended to shut 
the door for ever to the Scottish domination of 
England, and to the doubtful " conversion " of James 
Stuart. Father Cecil saw Idiaquez at night in 
Madrid, and pressed him to move Philip to send the 
expedition in the ensuing winter ; but no rapid 

^ Persons had been ceaseless in his efforts to frustrate any plan 
emanating from the Scottish Catholic party, or intended to get English 
affairs out of the hands of the Jesuits. The Carthusians had been 
specially active in seeking a modus vivendi for English Catholics, and 
had gained the powerful support of the Duke of Savoy and bis wife, 
the Infanta Catharine, Philip's second daughter. They sent the Car- 
thusian prior, Dr. Arnold, to Madrid in 1589 to enlist Philip in a 
proposal to work in Scotland through Chisholm, tlie Carthusian Bishop 
of Dunblane, and his nephew, the Bishop of Vaison. They professed 
to be able to bring James to the side of Spain, by force if necessary, 
and to kill the Chancellor, Maitland. The Bi.shop of Cassano (Owen 
Lewis), and the other non-Jesuit English and Scottish priests in 
Italy and France, were at the bottom of the intrigue, which included 
the obtaining of a cardinal's hat ior Lewis and the sending of Savoy and 
his wife to Flanders instead of Parma, giving them the management 
of the English plans. This would have checkmated the Jesuits 
entirely, and it is not surprising that Perscms promptly unset the plan 
by persuading Philip that the only person who would benefit would 
be James. At a somewhat later date a more promising plan with a 
similar object was nearly successful, as it had the active apj^roval of 
Allen, and most of the English malcontents in Flanders. The pro- 
posal on this occasion was to replace Parma in the government of 
Flanders by the extreme Catholic J)uchess of Feria, an Englishwoman 
who would direct the English Mission from Brussels. Persons frus- 
trated this plan also, violently denouncing it as a plot devised by 
Thomas Morgan and the English Government, which it certainly was 
not. As a result, Morgan was imprisoned in Brussels as a spy, and 
was not released until after Parma's death. The priest Dingley,"in his 
confession when captured in England (1592), said, "Persons is really 
the only man to be feared by England, for he travailleth the King so 
constantly. If Persons were removed there would be no more trouble." 
(See Spanish Calendar, vol. iv., and State Papers, Domestic, 1592.) 



46 TREASON AND PLOT 

decision could be obtained from the slow-moving old 
recluse, whose " leaden foot " allowed every oppor- 
tunity to fleet past him uncaught ; and Father Cecil, 
pray as he might, was not sent back until the winter. 
Persons, who knew the King's mode of pro- 
ceeding, suggested from the first that, if more 
information was needed, a confidential person 
speaking English should be sent back with Cecil 
to Scotland, to report on his return the true condi- 
tion of affairs. Persons suggested William Boden- 
ham, a member of a well-known Catholic English 
family settled in Seville ; but his suggestion for 
some reason was not adopted. There happened, 
however, to be in Madrid at the time one William 
Randall, a native of Weymouth, who had long been 
settled in Philip's town of Dunkirk, there busying 
himself mainly in the conveyance of priests and 
Catholics backwards and forwards from England to 
the Continent. He was a skilful old pilot, who 
knew every creek on the south and east coasts of 
England ; and when the English and Huguenot 
ships were together in Dieppe harbour in 1591, 
at the time that Henry IV. and Essex were be- 
sieging Rouen, Randall was the main worker in 
the plot to burn the combined fleets by "poisoned 
fireballs," the compounding of which he had learnt 
from "a lame old villain " at Dunkirk. His services 
had been enlisted in this plot by the little group 
of extreme English exiles in Flanders who favoured 
the policy of personal violence, namely, the Jesuits 
Holt and Archer, Sir W. Stanley, Captain Jaques, 
and their accomplices, and it is probable that 
Randall's visit to Madrid in the summer of 1593 



FATHER CECIL'S RETURN 47 

was for the purpose of forwarding in some way the 
views of this section. At all events, it was he who 
was deputed to accompany Father Cecil and a 
Spanish officer named Porres to the west of Scotland, 
in order to report respectively on the harbour 
accommodation offered to Philip, and the military 
resources of the Catholic nobles, to whom assurances 
of Spanish aid were sent by Cecil and Porres on 
condition of their keeping in arms against the Pro- 
testants. The envoys sailed from Spain in a Breton 
barque, and appear to have been accompanied by 
three missioners from the College at Valladolid. 
The barque was beset by tempests in the Channel, 
and forced to take refuge in Plymouth Harbour, in 
January 1594. This was indeed running into the 
lion's mouth, for Sir Francis Drake himself was 
in command of the town, and he had a short way 
with Spanish emissaries who fell into his hands. 
What became of the missioners we know not; pro- 
bably, like others of their kind by scores, they 
languished and died in prison ; but Father Cecil, 
who travelled as a Scotsman, was able to satisfy 
Drake and his colleagues that he was known and 
trusted by his powerful namesake in London, and 
both he and Randall were separated from their 
companions, and kept in private custody until 
orders came from London. Cecil was then allowed 
quietly to go on his way, with the Spanish officer as 
his servant, whilst William Randall, who was kept 
in ignorance still of Cecil's real character, was sent 
to the Gatehouse prison, hard by the Abbey of 
Westminster, there by slow degrees to have his 
black secrets wrung out of him by the rack and 



48 TREASON AND PLOT 

the ingenuity of the amiable Topcliffe, and so dis- 
appears from the scene. 

It will be noticed that every step in each 
conspiracy was perfectly known to the English 
Government as it was taken ; and Father Cecil, 
with the Spaniard Porres, met the Scottish nobles 
with the full connivance of Elizabeth's Ministers, 
who had been informed weeks before that Huntly, 
Errol, and Angus had made their peace with James, 
and had promised him to submit to the Kirk.^ Thus, 
at this juncture, Elizabeth was far better informed 
than James, and she kept in her hands the thread 
of the intrigue, of the true object of which he was 
in ignorance. The scathing letter she sent to him 
by the hand of Lord Zouche, in reply to James's 
intimation that he had become reconciled to the 
Earls, ^ therefore assumes for us a deeper meaning 
than it had before. " To see so much," she begins, 
" I rue my sight, that views the spectacle of a 
seduced king, an abusing council, and a wry-guided 
kinedom. I doubt whether shame or sorrow had 
the upper hand when I read your last lines to me. 
. . . There is no prince alive, but if he show fear 
or yielding, shall have tutors enough, though he be 
out of minority. And when I remember what sore 
punishment those lewd traitors should have, then I 
read again, lest at first I mistook your mind. But 
when the reviewing granted my lecture true, Lord ! 
what wonder grew in me that you should correct 
them with benefits who deserve much severer cor- 
rection. Could you please them more than save 
their lives and make them shun the place they 

^ James's letter to Elizabeth, December 7, 1593 (Camden Society). 
2 Printed in extenso in 'I'ytler's " History of Scotland." 



FATHER CECIL IN SCOTLAND 49 

hate (i.e. the Court) . . . and yet as much enjoy 
their honours and livelihood as if for sporting 
travel they were licensed to visit other countries? 
Call you this banishment ! — to be rid of those 
vs^hom we fear and let them go to those they love? 
Now when my eyes read more, then smiled I to 
see how childish, foolish, and witless an excuse the 
best of either three made you ! with their itenns ! of 
expenses, lacking but one billet, which they best 
deserved, an item for so much for the cord whose 
office they best merited. ... I never heard a more 
deriding scorn ; and I vow that if but this alone, 
were I you, they should learn a short lesson. For 
your own sake play the king, and let your subjects 
see you respect yourself, neither to hide or to suffer 
danger or dishonour." But in her letter Elizabeth 
said nothing to indicate her knowledge that, even 
as she wrote, the Scottish Catholic Earls were 
pledging themselves to Cecil and Porres to take 
up arms again, and hand the two realms over to 
the Spaniards ; for what she wanted to learn was 
whether James the Shifty had managed again to 
introduce his own finger into the pasty. It behoved 
her to watch him carefully, for a powerful Scottish- 
Spanish force crossing her northern border, where 
Catholicism was strongest, might well mean the 
destruction of her glorious life-work and of Pro- 
testant England. What she with all her keenness 
failed to see, because she could not follow Philip's 
mind as we can who have his secret papers before 
us, was that the moment James himself joined in 
the Catholic plans, all danger to England from Spain 
over the Scottish Border disappeared. 

D 



CHAPTER III 

Appeal to Spain of the Irish Catholics — Meeting of the Chiefs in 
Donegal — The Archbishop of Tuam's mission to Spain — James 
sends another envoy to Spain — The battle of Glenlivat — Walter 
Lindsay in Madrid — Suppression of the Catholic Lords in Scot- 
land — Their renewed appeal to Philip— Its failure, and the 
reason for it. 

Whilst the intrigue described in the last chapter 
was in progress, with the intention of bringing 
Catholicism and the Spanish subjection of England 
across the Scottish Border, a far more promising 
plan was ripening elsewhere. The constant efforts 
of the whole of the Catholic elements in Europe, 
except the Spanish Jesuitical party, to discover a 
solution of the difficulty by the conversion of James 
Stuart ; and the insincere coquetting of the King 
of Scots with both sides, had made Philip, with 
the Jesuit Persons at his ear, distrustful and reluc- 
tant to accept any plan for the English subjection 
which depended upon Scottish pledges. We have 
seen that his doubts were only partly overcome 
when the King of Scots himself was entirely ex- 
cluded from the conspiracy ; and we shall have 
occasion to remark that Philip again cooled towards 
the Scottish plans as soon as James had once 
more wormed himself into the heart of the Catholic 
intrigue. 

But no such misgivings assailed Philip the 
Prudent's mind with regard to Ireland. There 



THE IRISH CATHOLICS 51 

there was no king finessing to obtain the reversion 
of the English crown, no large native Protestant 
element to dispute for the Government if once the 
English garrisons were overcome. The English were 
practically supreme only within their Pale and in 
the walled cities ; and the introduction of the 
English, as opposed to the native Irish, rule of 
succession had caused the existence of at least two 
claimants to nearly every great estate and chieftain- 
ship. This, whilst it gave rise to perpetual weaken- 
ing tribal warfare, and secured to the English the 
adherence of at least some members of each of the 
princely families, with their sub-lords and following, 
who were glad to have their lands confirmed to 
them by the English crown, provided also a rallying 
point to native discontent to those who claimed 
and held their lands by old traditional tenures 
which every Irish kern understood. The hand of 
the old Irish chieftain had been sorely hard upon 
his tenants and under-lords, but at least he stood 
in the newer order of things under Elizabeth, for 
Irish feeling and tradition, and for the Irish 
Catholic faith, against foreign governors, whose 
rule might and did mean greater material pros- 
perity, security, and independence for each indi- 
vidual, but who, after all, were not Irishmen and 
not Catholics. 

The Munster rising in 1579-80 had clustered 
around such a feeling as this when it was voiced 
by James Fitzmaurice-Fitzgerald. At that time 
Philip had not decided upon open war with Eliza- 
beth, and the aid he sent to the rebels was timid 
and tardy, intended to embarrass Elizabeth, not to 



52 TREASON AND PLOT 

dominate Ireland. The intervention of foreigners 
on that occasion was Papal rather than Spanish, 
and it was mainly the Nuncio's prayers and Dr. 
Sanders' religious enthusiasm that drew Philip into 
the matter at all.'^ In any case, the whole Papal 
force was slaughtered, and the last Desmond rebellion 
was sufibcated in blood. The boy-son of the un- 
happy Earl, who had been dragged into the rising 
against his own interests, was being bred up a 
prisoner in the Tower of London, and the Catholic 
kin of James Fitzmaurice were living on the bounty 
of Philip in Lisbon, whilst the broad domain of the 
Geraldines was forfeit to the crown of England. 

Thus matters in Ireland remained until 1592. 
The English-bred Earl of Tyrone had held his chief- 
tainship of Ulster under the Queen for some years, 
quarrelling occasionally with his neighbours and 
vassals — sometimes even bickering with the Vice- 
roy — but holding the north fairly peaceful without 
much interference.^ But in 1592 relations were be- 
coming strained. Tyrone had become too masterful 
to remain either a good neighbour or a good vassal, 
and constant complaints were heard against him. 
His young son-in-law, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, heir 
of the great chief of Tyrconnel, was a prisoner in 
Dublin Castle for his turbulence, and Tyrone made 
suit almost fiercely for his liberation, but without 

1 For proof of this see original letters in British Museum, MSS. 
Add. 28,420, and Spanish Calendar, vols. ii. and iii. 

2 It should be noted that Tyrone had no right to the chieftainship 
other than the Queen's grant. Tirlough Lenogh O'Neil was the chief- 
tain under the Irish rule, and was recognised as such. The son of 
Shan O'Neil, who had a better title to succeed to the chieftainship than 
Tyrone after the death of Tirlough, was killed by Tyrone. 



O'DONNELL THE RED S3 

effect. In the summer of 1592 O'Donnell succeeded 
in escaping from prison and hurried down to his 
country of Donegal, where he took upon himself 
the chieftainship, notwithstanding the fact that his 
father was still alive. Leading his clansmen against 
the English force that occupied his lands, he drove 
them out with considerable loss, and then stood 
upon the defensive. In vain the Viceroy threatened 
and remonstrated ; in vain the Queen herself wrote 
to Tyrone warning him that he must keep his 
warlike son-in-law in order or punishment would 
fall upon them both. O'Donnell the Red stood his 
ground and defied the Government. Tyrone knew 
the English better than O'Donnell did, and was less 
hot-headed. He was not ready yet to brave the 
whole force that England could send, and began 
cautiously to cast about for allies whilst professing 
lip-service to the Queen. Macguire of Fermanagh, 
who claimed his lands by the Irish law, had 
defied the Viceroy to displace him. MacMahon of 
Monaghan was in similar case. Brian O'Rourke 
of Connaught — he of the Battleaxes — Oxford 
scholar though he was, was discontented because 
Elizabeth refused to confirm him as successor 
to his father — that fine old chieftain, Brian of 
the Ramparts, whom James of Scotland had 
dishonourably surrendered to Elizabeth only a 
year or two before, to be hanged and ripped on 
Tyburn tree. So, as will be seen, there was plenty 
of discontent upon which to work in the north of 
Ireland. During the depth of the winter of 1592, 
when the English troops were snug in their canton- 
ments, the chiefs of the north and west met in 



54 TREASON AND PLOT 

conference with seven Irish Catholic bishops, upon 
one of whom, M'Gavran, Archbishop of Armagh, the 
Pope had just conferred the Primacy of the Irish 
Church. There, in the wilds of misty Donegal, for 
three days much eloquence and fervour were ex- 
pended, and vague hopes were counted upon as 
certainties. We know thus much, though no 
report exists of the meeting, because a spy of 
Bingham brought him the news,^ and we can see 
now, as Bingham could not, how much was true 
and how much was otherwise. "They have made 
some great dispatch of certain letters which shall be 
sent out of hand by Bishop O'Healy (of Tuam) to 
the Pope and the King of Spain." This much was 
true, but the new Primate must have drawn strongly 
upon his imagination if he vouched for the further 
information attributed to him, namely, that he had 
accompanied the King of Spain into France^ with 

^ State Papers, Irish, January 1593. Sir G. Bingham to Sir K. 
Bingham. 

2 Archbishop M'Gavran had recently come from Eome by way of 
Spain ; he was accompanied by another Irish bishop, Cornelius O'Neil 
of Killaloe, who remained at Lisbon. Whilst the Archbishop was 
staying in Madrid (June 1591) the suggestion of an expedition from 
Ferrol against England, to which reference has already been made on 
page 37, appears to have been under discussion. The Irish regiment 
under Sir William Stanley was to have had a lar^'e share in the busi- 
ness, and the Archbishoj) appears to have thought that the liberation 
of Ireland was one of its objects. Writing to Captain Eustace in 
Flanders from Madrid in June 1591 he says, " I liope in God it will not 
be long ere we be discharged and delivered from the cruelty of those 
people {i.e. the Saxons). And although the clergy u]3on further con- 
sideration have let (i.e. hindered) the Catholic King about these busi- 
nesses, I doubt not but the people and soldiers that were disposed 
to succour that poor island, so long time in thraldom, will be ready ere 
long." He speaks of Philip and his officers as being slow, and says that 
a Spaniard is to have supreme command of the expedition (Hatfield 
Papers, vol. iv.). In previous pages I have shown how unlikely it was 



THE MEETING AT DONEGAL SS 

his daughter, the Infanta, who was to be married 
to the Duke of Guise. Also "that the King of 
Spain had determined to send two armies next 
summer, the one to England, the other to Ireland. 
The army for Ireland should come by Scotland and 
land in the north (of Ireland) ; but their {i.e. the 
Spaniards) only want was to have some great man to 
be, as it were, their leader or general, and they have 
now thought that Hugh Roe O'Donnell would be the 
fittest man." Alas ! for Irish hopes. Philip II. was not 
in the habit of making up his mind thus rapidly. His 
thirst for information and for pledges binding others 
before he bound himself meant many weary voyages 
backwards and forwards for years to come, and Irish 
hopes, sanguine as ever, were doomed to many dis- 
appointments before armies and fleets were possible. 
It was, moreover, as we have seen, by no means easy 
for Philip, overburdened with debt and demands as 
he was, to muster and provision large forces in a 
poverty-stricken country like Spain, almost without 
roads and cursed with such a cumbrous administra- 
tion as his. If the alarmist reports of Irish spies were 
to be believed, the whole matter was settled, and a 
powerful invasion of England by Spain was already 
being prepared on the first cry for help from the 
Ulster chiefs. This, as we know now, was far from 
being the case, and we must turn to the State Papers 
at Simancas to see what really happened. 

Archbishop O'Healy does not appear to have 

that tlie preparations in Ferrol in 1592 were ever seriously intended by 
Philip for an attack in force upon England, although it was his policy 
to keep the English in alarm by pretending that it was, and the vapour- 
ing of Stanley and the Irishmen in Flanders Avas doubtless encouraged, 
to give additional strength to the rumour. 



S6 TREASON AND PLOT 

sailed from Ireland until the beginning of April, 
and probably went first to Rome, as he did not 
arrive in Madrid before August 1593.^ The note 
of his mission is struck by a letter he carried from 
O'Donnell to the exiled Geraldines, Viscount Baltin- 
glas, and other Irish Catholics in Lisbon.^ The 
letter was forwarded to the exiles on the arrival 
of the Archbishop in Madrid, and runs thus : — 
"Donegal, 8th April 1593. — You will have heard, 
my dear friends, how I have contrived to escape the 
jail and fetters in which I lay ; and how, after great 
travail and difficulty, I came to my own lands, where 
I found an English personage, a minister of the 
Queen, with many soldiers, whom, by the divine 
grace, I have killed and cast out of my land in a 
very short time, and the English have returned no 
more ; not for want of will to destroy me and do 
all the harm they can. But I, and the others who 
joined with me, although we are doing the best we 
can to defend ourselves, can hardly hold out against 
the great power of England, unless we get help 

^ It is curious, as showing the duplicity of Tyrone, and the equally 
sanguine and unfounded hopes of prompt Spanish aid being sent, 
that the earl, writing to the Lord-Deputy of Ireland in May 1593 
(two months before the Archbishop of Tuam even arrived in Madrid), 
informs him, as one of the reasons for not meeting the Lord-Deputy 
as requested, that " The traitorous bishops have assured upon letters 
which some have lately received, that the Spaniards will be here by 
the 20th July at farthest, and so they give out, with every show of 
joy " (Irish State Papers, May 1 593). 

2 Standin, an English Catholic in the Spanish service, who became 
a spy-agent for Essex, wrote that a week before he left Madrid in 
April 1593, Baltinglas and John of Desmond, with eight Irish follow- 
ers, had arrived there from Lisbon, presumably to urge Philip to in- 
tervene in Ireland. A man from Ireland was known to have been 
closeted with the King a few weeks before, and it was suggested, 
though questioned, that he had offered to betray to the Spaniards 
the town of Galway (Birch). 



IRISH MISSION TO SPAIN 57 

from his Catholic Majesty. With the common 
consent of them all, therefore, we have thought 
well to send the Archbishop of Tuam (much as we 
need him here) to treat with his Majesty of this, 
and to carry to you, gentlemen, who are there, our 
letters, begging you all to come and help us to fight 
God's battle, and win back our lands. It is meet 
that we should understand each other well, and 
help one another in this matter. I myself will do 
my part to the death, with the help of the succour 
I hope from his Majesty, and with your presence 
and help. God be with ye ; and, pray, hurry the 
Archbishop back with an answer. From Donegal, 
this 8th April 1593.— Ardh. O'Donnaill." ^ This 
letter reached Lisbon on the 3rd September, and 
on the following day the courier was speeding back 
again to Madrid with fervent letters from Sir Maurice 
Fitzgerald ^ and the Bishop of Killaloe to the King 
of Spain, beseeching him to send aid to the 
Catholics of Ireland. That of the Irish exiled 
gentleman is worth transcribing. " Maurice Geral- 
dine, heir of the Earl of Desmond, and the other 
Irish gentlemen in your Majesty's service here, have 
received letters by the Archbishop of Tuam, who is 
now in your Majesty's court, from the most power- 
ful Catholics in Ireland, saying that they are con- 
certing a war against the Queen of England, and 
they beg us to supplicate your Majesty to send them 
succour with the utmost possible speed. We know 
that these gentlemen are Catholics, and are at the 
present time the most powerful people in Ireland ; 

^ Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 

2 Sir Maurice Fitzgerald and Sir Thomas Fitzgerald had been 
salaried officers, unattached, on the Armada. 



58 TREASON AND PLOT 

and seeing that they voluntarily risk their lives to 
serve God and your Majesty, we have decided to 
beseech your Majesty, for the love of God, and 
with the utmost earnestness of which we are cap- 
able, to favour us all by looking down upon their 
need and sending them such aid as may be con- 
sidered advisable. We also beg to be allowed to 
go with it, to defend and support the enterprise ; 
and we trust, with the divine favour, that your 
Majesty will be victorious, and conquer for yourself 
the realm of Ireland, and then hy this means enter 
into England, It would be a great pity for these 
gentlemen to be lost for lack of succour, as the 
Earl of Desmond was when he rose like these. 
We trust in God that your Majesty will consider 
well the advantage that will ensue to Christendom 
from this business. The conjuncture is favourable, 
the cause is just, and all are disposed to do good 
service. If promptness be displayed, the Queen 
must withdraw the contingents she keeps in Flan- 
ders and France, and there will be fewer English- 
men on the coasts of Spain. We humbly beg your 
Majesty to favour the enterprise. We ourselves 
are ready to do anything. — Lisbon, 4th September. 
Don Maurice Geraldine." Before this, and a similar 
letter from the Bishop of Killaloe,^ who was also in 
Lisbon, arrived in Madrid, the Archbishop had gone 
through the usual process of sifting from the King's 
secretary, Don Juan de Idiaquez, in order that the 
latter might discover, for his master's guidance, how 
much "foundation," as he was wont to call it, there 

^ This bishop, Cornelius O'Neil, had saved and forwarded to 
Scotland many of the men wrecked from the Armada on the Irish 
coast. 



IRISH MISSION TO SPAIN 59 

was in the Irish revolt. It must be noted that not 
a word is said throughout the Archbishop's docu- 
ments about Tyrone. He was working still in the 
background ; and in the statement finally handed by 
the Archbishop to Philip II. the revolted nobles are 
named as O'Donnell, Macguire, and Brian O'Rourke. 
The Archbishop in his conference with the King 
ascribed to himself the principal merit of the rising. 
"For years past," he said, " he had used great efi'orts 
both publicly and privately to unite the Catholics of 
Ireland, with the object of their taking up arms for 
the faith, and in your Majesty's service, against the 
English heretics. His enterprise has succeeded, and 
the most powerful chiefs of the north of Ireland 
have now agreed, and have risen against the Queen, 
with the tacit consent of many other Catholics, who 
would like to do the same." He then prayed that 
prompt Spanish aid should be sent. "The gentle- 
men who had risen," he assured the King, " have 
in their territories good harbours and troops at 
their command, and any help sent to them would 
render the Queen of England powerless for harm. 
O'Donnell, he told Philip, had sixty Irish miles 
of land on the sea-coast, with splendid harbours 
capable of sheltering the greatest navies afloat. 
He could raise 3000 men of his own vassals, and 
his kinsmen in Scotland would help him with more. 
Macguire had forty miles of land, and could raise 
2000 of his kerns, whilst Bernard (i.e. Brian) 
O'Rourke, " whose father on his way to Scotland 
for help was unfortunately captured by the English 
and decapitated,"^ could "raise 1000 men, and no 

^ It was decidedly cool of young Brian of the Battleaxes to make 



6o TREASON AND PLOT 

more, because the English after killing his father had 
devastated his lands. The lands of the three chiefs 
together can furnish 600 horse." But the Arch- 
bishop seems to have attached most importance to 
the raising of Munster by the two exiled Geral- 
dines, Maurice and Thomas, in Philip's pay, and 
a similar call to arms of Leinster on the part of 
Viscount Baltinglas and Sir Charles O'Connor, who 
were also pensioned exiles in Spain ; " and this 
would be easy with but few men, as the country is 
easily defensible, and particularly one valley, which 
a few soldiers could hold against the world." The 
Burkes of Connaught, too, the sanguine Archbishop 
thought, would supply 1000 men to the combined 
forces : " and finally, nearly all Irishmen are against 
the English, and wish to get rid of such evil 
neighbours." The armed contingent requested was 
from 5000 to 10,000 soldiers, as many as possible ; 
and the chiefs promised to welcome them with at 
least 6000 Irish foot and 600 horse. 

When the Archbishop left the King's chamber 
from the conference this is what Philip scrawled, 
in that appalling hand of his, on a note attached 
to the Irish letters and statements. The note was 
to the secretary Idiaquez — "Here are the letters 
and notes that the Irish Archbishop has just given 
me. And if what they say is true it would be a 
great pity not to help them. What they demand 
in one of the letters is very much, and would be 
so if it were less than it is. You (Idiaquez) talk to 

this a subject for grievance. He wrote to the Privy Council (April 3, 
1592) only a year before saying that his father had been fittingly 
punished for his fractiousness. Brian's real grievance, like that of 
Macguire, was that Elizabeth hesitated to confirm his chieftainship. 



PHILIP AND THE IRISH 6i 

him and get to the bottom of it all/ and then we 
will see what is the very smallest aid that will be 
needed. If it be so small that we can give it, it 
will be well to help them. Let Don Cristobal {i.e. 
De Moura, the other secretary) know what you do 
in the matter." It is evident from this hesitating 
note that the great armies and fleets which Philip 
was to send to Ireland and Scotland at this time 
(September 1593) were conjured up mainly by the 
hopes of conspirators who knew little of the Spanish 
King's methods, or by the eagerness of spies to 
justify the expenses they incurred. Whoever else 
may have been deceived, the Cecils and Queen 
Elizabeth certainly were not. Father Cecil was in 
Madrid at the same time as the Archbishop of 
Tuam, and we may be perfectly sure that he knew 
and conveyed to England pretty accurately the par- 
ticulars of the Irish demands and the reception of 
them by Philip.^ The efficient French spy Chateau 
Martin in Bayonne, moreover, continued to send to 
Lord Burghley correct accounts of Spanish arma- 

^ One of the results of tlie conference between Idiaquez and the 
Archbishop is seen in a note from the former to the King (Simancas 
MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.) saying that "The Irish Archbishop 
says that it will be of great importance for the success of the con- 
federacy of Irish Catholics that your Majesty should write very 
affectionately to the Earl of Tyrone, whose name is O'Neil, to induce 
him to enter openly into the confederacy. He already belongs to it 
secretly, and he should be assured that your Majesty's aid shall not 
fail them. The Archbishop consequently begs your Majesty to order 
a letter to be written to the Earl to that effect." This admission would 
be quite sufficient to cause Philip to delay action until Tyrone's 
open adhesion was gained. 

2 As early as the i8th September, an Irish merchant, J. Byrne, of 
Drogheda, who had just returned from Spain, reported to Bingham 
that " O'Healy, a priest or bishop, had arrived in Spain to solicit forces 
to maintain Macguire in his rebellion." 



62 TREASON AND PLOT 

ments and their destinations, mainly the coast of 
Brittany and the south-west of France ; and to 
describe the prostration and feebleness of Philip. 
To such a depth of impotence, indeed, had Spain 
already fallen, that approaches were made in October 
by Philip's authority to Lord Burghley, through 
Chateau Martin, offering as a basis for peace nego- 
tiations between the countries that the English 
should have full liberty to trade in all the Spanish 
dominions, if the depredations of the English cor- 
sairs upon Spanish shipping should cease. But 
Burghley saw and noted that commerce was no 
longer the main subject at issue. Any negotia- 
tions that did not exclude Spain from Holland and 
Brittany were foredoomed to failure, and the sug- 
gestion came to nothing.^ But the fact that it was 
made shows how wide of the mark the alarmist 
reports of the spies were at this juncture.^ 

^ Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. 

2 For instance, Orme reports to Lord Burghley, i5tli December 1593, 
that he had recently heard at Eouen "from Shelton, a papistical rebel, 
that the Spanish Armada would be ready to sail fifteen days previ- 
ously, but whether for Brittany, Ireland, or Scotland was unknown" 
(Domestic S. P. of the date). From other sources we now know that 
the only armament Philip had at the time ready or in preparation, 
except for defence, were sixteen ships at Pasages, intended to carry re- 
inforcements of 2000 men, three-quarters of whom were recruits, and 
building materials for fortifications, the destination being Blavet, in 
Brittany. A few weeks later (January 1594) the spy Moody, at 
Brussels, wrote (Hatfield Papers, vol. iv.) that since the wars with 
France began the Spanish army was never so great as it will be in three 
months' time : " so great as we here do not see how they will be em- 
ployed except it be for England." He adds that 5000 Spaniards had 
lately landed in Brittany (which was untrue), and that fifty sail, with 
10,000 men, had arrived near Bordeaux, " which are to go to Scotland." 
" I assure you the expectation for England was never so great as at this 
present." The English Catholic refugees in Flanders seem, indeed, to 
have principally amused themselves by exaggerating the power of 
Spain and the danger of England, which suited Philip exactly. 



THE IRISH CONSPIRACY 63 

As soon as the Geraldines in Lisbon had news of 
the position of affairs in Ireland by the Archbishop's 
letters, they sent a follower of theirs, one John 
Slatimor, to report on the feeling in Munster and 
Leinster towards the revolt. But an Anglo-Irish 
spy in Bilbao — one Patrick Comerford — was able 
to send particulars of his mission to Ireland before 
Slatimor sailed, and the footsteps of the latter were 
dogged with a warrant for his arrest wherever he 
went. He was, however, fortunate in being able to 
elude his pursuers, and returned to Spain before the 
Archbishop of Tuam left, giving Philip a vivid 
picture of the determination of the Irish Catholics, 
and the confusion and ineptitude of the English 
attempts to crush the budding revolt. There were, 
he said, 4000 Irishmen in arms against the Queen 
in Ulster, of whom 1000 were harquebusiers ; and 
the English forces had been rendered powerless by 
dissensions. The response of the Irish contingents 
to the English summons had, moreover, been dis- 
appointing, and the Viceroy stood upon the defen- 
sive until fresh troops came from England. "The 
principal gentlemen of Munster have sent to Sir 
Maurice and Sir Thomas Geraldine to say secretly 
that they are ready to rise against the English at any 
moment, if the exiles will come to their aid ; " and 
a similar message was sent to Viscount Baltinglas 
from his friends and allies, notably Feagh M'Hugh 
(O'Byrne), " who can do great harm to the English, 
as he has some strong places on his lands ; especially 
one famous valley, where fifteen soldiers with plenty 
of ammunition could hold the place against the 
world." " Our people," Slatimor reported to the King, 



64 TREASON AND PLOT 

*' are anxiously awaiting the reply [i.e. of Philip), 
and are full of hope and energy. The affairs of 
Ireland are now in such a condition that if his 
Majesty will send prompt and powerful aid, great 
effect will be produced. The Queen will be kept 
busy at home, with small cost to his Majesty. 
In order to keep the war alive it will be well 
to send at once some arms and ammunition, 
especially harquebuses and powder; and one of 
the Irish gentlemen in his Majesty's pay should be 
sent thither to animate them with his presence." 
The Archbishop of Tuam was also warned that the 
English were on the watch to intercept and arrest 
him on the voyage home.-^ Whether they succeeded 
in this is unknown. The Archbishop sailed in the 
winter for Ireland, with encouraging messages and 
promises to the chiefs in arms, and a flattering letter 
from the King himself to Tyrone ; but no more was 
ever heard of him, and neither the prelate nor his 
letters ever reached Ireland. In the meanwhile the 
King of Scots was making desperate attempts to 
regain touch of the Spanish intrigues of his Catholic 
nobles. Father Cecil and Porres found on their 
arrival in Scotland, early in 1594, that James's diplo- 
macy or his sympathies had already attracted to his 
side again many of the Catholics. The treason of 
Bothwell (who at the time was called a Protestant 
and an English partisan, though he shortly after- 
wards changed sides and joined Huntly) in seizing 
and holding the King in durance in the autumn, 
had led James again to surround himself with 

1 Slatimor also reports that the English have discovered and are 
working a rich silver mine near Wexford. Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



JAMES AGAIN IN THE PLOT 6^ 

Catholics and enemies of the Stnart faction. In 
December 1593, we are told by a gossip at the 
English court, that there was much talk of James 
going to Mass ; and that " Lord Hume, a remark- 
able Papist of the realm, lay in that King's pallet."^ 
But the presence of Lord Zouche in Scotland and 
Elizabeth's constant pressure had so far prevented 
the complete reconciliation between the King and 
the three great rebel Catholic Earls, whose promised 
submission to the Kirk was still unfulfilled. He 
was drawn closer to them soon after the coming of 
Father Cecil and Porres by another bold attempt 
of Bothwell to seize his person ; and the Earls, 
encouraged by the promises — and, it is asserted," 
also money — sent to them by the hand of Porres, 
assumed an increasingly threatening attitude to- 
wards the Protestants,^ once again mustering their 
followers, in accordance with the message sent to 
them from Spain, and bidding defiance to the ex- 
communications of the Scottish Church, the sentence 
of confiscation and death passed upon them by the 
Scottish Parliament, and the real or pretended ful- 
minations against them by the Scottish King. 

■■ Antony Standen, Birch's " Memoirs of Elizabeth." 

2 iiobertson. 

2 Dr. Morrison, the Earl of Essex's agent in Scotland, wrote in 
November 1593 that credible intelligence had just arrived that the 
King of Spain was preparing vast armaments for next spring. The 
King of Scots, he continued, had so strong a desire to avenge himself 
upon Bothwell, that he gave himself no rest. But finding that all 
persons wished well to Bothwell except the Papists, the King was 
obliged to make use of the latter, who were extremely glad of his 
Majesty's confidence, and, under that pretence, pursued their own 
interests and those of Popery (Birch). It was probably not so much 
James's desire for vengeance against Bothwell, as to insinuate himself 
into the Spanish scheme again tliat drew him to Huntly and his friends. 

E 



66 TREASON AND PLOT 

James must have been fully informed by this time 
of the mission of Father Cecil to Spain, and his 
counter-stroke was to send an envoy of his own to 
Madrid, and to make a great show of negotiation with 
Philip, in order to prevent any action being taken 
in Scotland over his head. " II y'a grande com- 
munication entre les rois d'Ecosse et d'Espagne," 
writes Chateau Martin in March 1594, and a few 
days later he repeated the information to Burghley. 
Elizabeth was extremely indignant to hear this, and 
wrote, in her vigorous way, to James : " I do avowe 
that if you do aught by forainers ; which I do know 
in end worse for yourself and country, hit shall be 
the worst aide that ever king had, and I fear may 
make me do more than you will call back in haste." ^ 
But the money she promised to James to help him 
to put down the Catholic Earls and hold his own 
without Spanish support might have been spared 

1 Elizabetli to James, May i8, 1594 (Camden Society). There is 
no doubt that the belief that James had opened commvinications 
with Spain was true, although it is clear that his approaches would 
never have moved Philip. R. Douglas, writing from Whitting- 
hame, 8th June 1 594, to his uncle. Sir Archibald Douglas, the Scots 
ambassador in England, refers to a rumour that a barque had come to 
Scotland from Spain with a money subsidy. "As concerning the gold 
which was thought to have come to our (rebel) Lords, I have been 
curioi.s to know the truth thereof ; but ye shall believe me there was 
no such thing ; for in the bark there were only three passengers, a 
Spaniard, a Scotsman, and an English priest, who I hear has gone to 
England by our borders. The Spaniard had a message to the King 
with large oflfers ; but has nut appeared, seeing the time not proper; 
and large promises he has made to these Lords of money and any other 
help they can crave against that country {i.e. England). This is all I 
can learn of the matter." It is not certain whether this refers to the 
arrival of Cecil and Porres in the country some months previously, or 
to the mission of Colonel Semple, who went from Spain to Scotland 
about this time with some handsome presents from Philip to James 
and his wife, but the intelligence proves the general belief that James 
was intriguing with Spain at the same time as the Catholic Earls. 



THE BATTLE OF GLENLIVAT 67 

(as in the end it probably was, but for other reasons) 
if the English Queen had known how complete an 
antidote was James himself to the intrigues in Spain 
of the Scottish Catholics. Whatever else might 
happen, it was quite certain that Philip would never 
spend a ducat or sacrifice a trooper to benefit him. 
This was perhaps the reason why, although Huntly 
and his friends were in open rebellion, and had thus 
fulfilled the conditions upon which Spanish support 
was to be sent to them, month followed month and 
still no aid from Spain came, though the Catholics 
depending upon Philip looked for it from day to 
day.^ 

James was powerless with his own forces alone 
to put down the rising, even if he was really inclined 
to do so ; but by the autumn he could no longer 
resist the pressure of England and his Protestant 
subjects, and was obliged to make a show of bring- 
ing the rebels to obedience. The Campbells and 
the Forbeses had old tribal feuds with them, and 
to those clans James gave his commission to invade 
the lands of the Catholic peers. Young Argyll, a 
boy of eighteen, commanded the Protestant army of 
7000 men, and met the small force of 1500 Gor- 
dons and Lowlanders under Huntly and Errol at 
Glenlivat in October 1594. 

1 Foulis writes from Edinburgh to Antony Bacon CBirch's "Eliza- 
betli "), in July 1 594. urging the need for Elizabeth to help James with 
money. " It is necessary that he (i.e. James) be satisfied . . . and in 
time, for the Papists begin to show themselves. The three Earls have 
six or seven hundred men in the field, and expect to receive forces from 
Spain very soon. It is thought that 10 or 12 sail (i.e. of Spaniards) are 
already at sea. The King (James) had troops enough to keep the Earls 
quiet, but Avanted money." 



68 TREASON AND PLOT 

" Maccallum More cam' frae the west 
Wi' mony a bow and brand ; 
To waste the Rhinnes he thought best, 
The Earl o' Huntlie's land. 
He swore that nane should him gainstand 
Except that they were fey, 
But a' should be at his command 
That dwalt by north o' Tay." 

But alas ! for the young chieftain's boasting ; for, 
as the ancient ballad tells with tedious minuteness, 
the "Gay Gordons," with their little force, had cannon, 
of which the wild Campbell Highlanders knew but 
little, and they routed Argyll completely.^ 

"Now I hae you already tauld 
Huntlie and Errol's men 
Could scarce be thirteen hundred called. 
The truth if ye would ken. 
And yet Argyll and his thousand ten 
Were they that took the race ; 
And though that they were nine to ane, 
They caused them tak' the chnse. 
Sae Argyll's boast it was in vain, 
(He thocht sure not to tyne ^), 
That if he durst come to the plain, 
He would gar every nine 
Of his lay hold upon ilk man 
Huntlie and Errol had ; 
And yet for all his odds he ran 
To tell how ill he sped." 

1 With regard to this, Elizabeth wrote to James as follows in October 
1594 (Letters of Elizabeth and James, Canidt-n See.) : "You see . . . 
what danger it bredes a king to glorify too hie and too soudainly a boy 
of yeres and conduict, whose untimely age for discretiim bredes ra<ch 
consent and luidesent actions. Such speke eie they weigh, and attempt 
ere they consider. The weight of a kingly state is of more poix than 
the shalownes of a rasche yong man's heil can waigh." 

2 i.e. to lose. 



CECIL RETURNS TO SPAIN 69 

It was clear to the Catholic Lords that, although 
they had beaten Argyll, they could not continue un- 
assisted to stand if James attacked them in earnest 
with the aid that Elizabeth would surely lend him in 
such circumstances. Two months before the battle 
they had sent Walter Lindsay, Lord Balgarys, to 
Madrid, fervently praying Philip to fulfil his promise 
to them ; ^ and on the day following their victory 
they decided to send back Father Cecil with the 
Jesuit, Father Gordon, Huntly's uncle, to represent 
their desperate position to the King of Spain. 
Eventually, Father Gordon was unable to make the 
voyage, and was replaced by Hugh Barclay,^ who 
accompanied Cecil to Spain, and in addition to the 
almost despairing letters of credence and exhortation 
which they carried, Angus — who appears to have 
been a good Spanish scholar — wrote to Philip 
placing himself absolutely at his service, without 
reservation of any sort. " In this unhappy country," 
he said, " we have no other hope than the aid of 
your Highness ; and in the name of the rest of the 
Catholics here, I supplicate your Highness to help 
heartily a cause so just, meritorious, and necessary, 
in conformity with the statement which will be made 
to you by Father Cecil, who is the bearer of this. 
As regards my own person, I beg your Highness to 
favour me by giving me this consolation in all my 
troubles, namely, to place me amongst the number 
of your favoured loyal servants, and to dispose 
entirely at your will of all I have and all I am."^ 

1 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 

2 Angus in his letter to Idiaquez introducing him says, "He has 
fought for the faith until he had a rope round his neck." 

^ Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



yo TREASON AND PLOT 

Before Cecil had started on his journey (November 
1594), Lord Balgarys saw Philip at the Escorial 
(October 20), and presented the demands of the 
Catholic Lords. To those who know the Spanish 
King's methods and principles, it is sufficient to 
read Balgarys' statement of demand to see at once 
that his mission was destined to fail. Philip missed 
most of the opportunities of his life through his 
insatiable desire to force pledges and conditions 
upon others whilst remaining only vaguely engaged 
himself. It must have been a novel sensation for 
him to find that the Scotsmen, though they were 
pleading to him as suppliants, were at the same 
time trying to bind him down to all manner of 
things beforehand. The first condition presented 
by Balgarys would have been sufficient to stay all 
aid from Philip, even if it had stood alone. '* That 
his Majesty should grant him a patent, assuring them 
(the Scots) their liberties, and that the war should be 
declared to be undertaken to restore the Catholic 
religion. That for the entrance into England, the 
command should be given either to the Cardinal 
Archduke Albert or his brother the Archduke Ernest. 
Either of them would be welcomed by Scotsmen. 
That for the war in Scotland itself, his Majesty . . . 
should select for command a Catholic Scottish noble 
during the time the King (James) remains a heretic ; 
and, indeed, even if he change his opinions, as his 
conversion cannot be believed in ; and that his 
Majesty (Philip) should confer some dignity upon 
the general so selected. That a fleet should be sent 
to protect them, and an army to march into England. 
That twenty small ships should be granted to them, 



FRESH APPEALS TO PHILIP 71 

with 1000 good horses, and money to arm and 
pay 24,000 Scotsmen, as well as arms for the 
Scottish priests ; for their own — which were their 
books — have been burnt by the heretics. That the 
Spaniards, both in the army and the fleet, should be 
pious and willing to mix with Scotsmen, so that 
they should form one army under a single general. 
It is left to his Majesty's discretion what steps 
should be taken to restore the Catholic faith. That 
priests should be sent with full authority to check 
the license of the soldiery as much as possible. 
That the money sent from Spain should be destined 
to certain definite uses, and not be applicable to 
any other purposes. There should be a written 
undertaking to this eflPect given to the King. That, 
with the exception of the soldiers necessary for the 
defence of the fleet, the rest of the army should 
enter England without delay, as otherwise war 
might break out in Scotland itself, which would 
embarrass the expedition and render the result 
doubtful. No delay will arise from the Scots, as 
they are ready to obey orders." In addition to this, 
his Majesty is asked to found a college, where the 
sons of the principal Scots may be educated and 
taught letters, " as well as the reverence they owe 
to the King of Spain, which should be obligatory 
on their successors in Scotland." All this was very 
different in tone from the first message sent in the 
previous year by Father Cecil. There was no more 
talk about " dealing with " James, as the King of 
Spain might order; and the absence of all reference 
to the future sovereignty of England seems to indi- 
cate that the renewed kindness between James and 



72 TREASON AND PLOT 

his Catholic subjects had not been without influence 
upon the plans of the latter.^ At all events, the 
new conditions presented to Philip by Balgarys left 
the door open for the assertion of James's claims 
under Spanish auspices, on the easy condition of his 
" conversion." But this was not at all in accordance 
with the views of Philip and his Jesuit advisers, and 
thenceforward the charming of the Scottish Catho- 
lic nobles fell upon deaf ears in the Spanish court. 
Bland assurances of sympathy they got in plenty 
from the King and his secretaries and confessors, 
sometimes even vague, noncommital promises, suffi- 
cient to ensure their employment as a diversion if 
necessary ; but Philip's short-lived trust in Scotsmen 
withered from the time that Balgarys saw him at 
the Escorial in October 1594. 

Father Cecil arrived in Madrid in December 1594,^ 
and added his prayers to those of Balgarys ; and 

^ It must not be forgotten that Philip's claim to the English crown 
depended mainly upon the " heresy " of James ; the alleged informality 
of the marriages of his parents and of his paternal grandparents being 
an afterthought of small importance. The reconciliation of James to 
the Catholic Church in Scotland, however half-hearted it might be, 
would therefore have entirely altered the position of Philip and his 
daughter the Infanta with regard to the English succession. This was 
the principal reason why any solution depending upon the reconcilia- 
tion of James was so vigorously opposed by Philip and the Jesuits. 
It would have suited Spanish views perfectly if the Catholic Scottish 
nobles had captured James and killed him, but for them to capture 
and convert him wa-i the last thing desired. 

2 The Venetian ambassador in Madrid wrote to the Doge at this 
time (lotli December 1594): " Two Scotch gentlemen came here this 
month on pretext of private affairs. They have had various inter- 
views with the King ; and in the name of the King of Scotland they 
have explained that his Majesty is afraid of treachery on the part 
of some of his powerful Catholic vassals. He is afraid to make an 
open enemy of the Queen of England, otherwise he would declare 
himself a Catholic : both because he is so inclined and in order to 



PHILIP IS IRRESPONSIVE ' 73 

early in 1595 the Laird of Ladyland also came from 
Scotland with the last despairing cry of the Earls, 
tieartsick of the cool procrastination of Philip, 
which, of course, they failed to understand, for they 
could not look at the King's hand as we have 
the privilege of doing, the three envoys addressed 
a letter to Philip (in May ?) which set forth the 
hopeless position of Huntly and his friends. " Sire," 
they wrote, "the Scottish nobles, who with their 
blood have fulfilled all that in their name was 
promised to your Majesty by the priest John Cecil; 
and not alone by their firm profession of the Catho- 
lic faith, but also by their devotion to your Majesty's 
service, have risked their lives, estates, goods, and 
reputation, and have risen in arms against the 
united forces of England and Scotland, gaining the 
glorious victory they did in October {i.e. Glenlivat) 
over the English troops sent from L'eland and the 
Scottish troops paid by the English Queen : on 
which occasion they captured the King's standard, 
and his commission ordering the expulsion of all 
Papists, Seminarists, Jesuits, and other confederates 
of Spain. They now humbly pray your Majesty 
to send them promptly the aid promised to them in 
your Majesty's name by Serjeant Porres and John 
Cecil. In full dependence upon your Majesty's 

save his person from these treaclierous attacks. At first the (Spanish) 
Mini>ters were suspicious of this mission, thinking that it might cover 
some ruse of the Queen of England, especially as it is known that the 
English intend to attack the Indian fleet next year. Finally, they 
resolvt-d to send a private emissary to Scotland, as was done last week, 
to speak to the King, and to throw more light on the matter" (Venetian 
Calendar). Whether this refers to the mission of Cecil and Barclay, or 
to other envoys simultaneously sent by James to circumvent them, is 
not clear ; but the latter is probably the case. 



74 TREASON AND PLOT 

promise, the said nobles have placed themselves 
in the dangerous position already described, re- 
fusing all offers of agreement made to them on 
behalf of the Queen of England, to the effect 
that they should have full protection and liberty 
for their faith within their own territories, if they 
would undertake not to treat with Spain. It is 
now about two years ago since your Majesty sent 
Serjeant Porres and gave them hopes of succour, 
and Baron Balgarys has been here for the last seven 
months pleading for them. They have now des- 
patched Baron Ladyland and John Cecil as the 
last messengers they will be able to send on this 
business. Your Majesty is already informed of the 
need for sending prompt aid to these gentlemen ; 
and how greatly such aid would serve the cause 
of God and your Majesty. In all other things 
they submit themselves to your Majesty's orders ; 
and only supplicate your Majesty, if possible, to 
fulfil your royal word. If this be impossible, they 
pray for a reply and dismissal. — ^John Cecil. Bal- 
thasar [i.e. Walter) de Balgarys. Ladyland." ^ A 

^ Rolston, Essex's spy at Fuentarrabia, writes under date of January 
31, 1595 : "The Scots gentleman has now got his despatch and will be 
here in twenty days. For this reason it will be proper to give orders 
on the coast of Norfolk to finger him in his way if it be possiltle. He 
calleth himself Walter Lindsay, and the master of the ship is Thomas 
Sutherland of Aberdeen. It is openly said at Fuentarrabia that he w;is 
sent to Spain by seven Earls of Scotland, of whom the Earl Bothwell 
and Earl of Huntly be the chiefs. What despatch he obtained I know 
not till he cometh to Fuentarrabia. All I can learn is that tliose Earls 
had sworn to make war against the Queen of England if the Kin'4 of 
Spain would help them" (Birch). In March 1595 the Earl of Mar 
wrote to the Earl of Essex : " As to the negotiation of Lindsay, I think 
as yet the directors of him have received small or no comfort of his 
message." In November 1595 Mr. Aston wrote from Edinburgh 



DEFEAT OF HUNTLY 75 

further petition of similar date prayed Philip to 
intercede with the Pontiff, and prevail upon him to 
grant to the Catholic Lords in arms the subsidy of 
5000 ducats a month which he had offered to James 
in June 1594 if he would take up arms against 
England. 

But it was already too late for Philip to have 
helped them, even if he had wished to do so. 
James had, for once in his life, shown some activity 
and boldness. He had pawned his jewels and 
pledged what credit he had, and summoning all that 
was loyal and Protestant of his realm, had com- 
pletely crushed Huntly and Errol. Driven to their 
mountain strongholds, their lands wasted and their 
houses burnt, they humbly begged the King's per- 
mission to retire beyond the sea. With their exile 
the Catholic revolt was at an end in Scotland, and 
the King's position with the Protestant party firmer 
than ever it had been. In July 1595 he wrote to 
Elizabeth complaining of her slackness in helping 
him, and again begging for her aid against the 
Catholics ; for during the time of struggle into 
which her railing had driven him she had silently 
stood aloof. Again he sought to spur her as before 
with hints at her own danger : " Surelie, Madame, 
if it shal please you to wey it, ye will find we both 
are but at a truce and not at peace with the Romishe 

(Birch) that they were in great fear in Scotland of the coming of the 
Spaniard, and reports — from a letter received from a Scotsman in Spain 
— of the great preparations being made. "Mr. Walter Lindsay has 
been honourably entertained in Spain and is made a knigbt. He has 
obtained all he desired, both for himself and the banished lords, and is 
coming to Flanders with the Cardinal " (Archduke Albert). It will be 
seen that Rolston was mistaken, and that Balgarys remained in Spain. 



76 TREASON AND PLOT 

Spanische practices. These Spanolised rebels of 
mine that are fledd the cuntrey are but retired to 
fetch a greater fairde if they may." ^ How far James 
may have really believed this it is hard to say, but 
wittingly or unwittingly, he had ruined the hopes 
of his rebel Catholic Lords by his artful intervention 
on the same side. It is giving him, perhaps, too 
much credit for penetration to suppose that he 
foresaw the exact result of his action ; he probably 
intended merely to secure for himself the benefit 
of any Spanish movement, and did not recognise 
that his participation in Catholic plans would pre- 
vent a Spanish expedition altogether. How little 
the Lords themselves still understood this, and how 
completely James had outwitted them, is best told 
in the words of the envoy they sent to Spain from 
Paris after their flight from Scotland. This was 
Matthew Semple, probably a son of Lord Semple, 
and a nephew of Colonel Sir William Semple, who 
was an officer in Philip's pay. This is the statement 
handed to the Spanish King by Semple : — " On the 
5th July Matthew Semple left Paris for Spain, on 
behalf of the Earls of Huntly and Bothwell,^ and 
Lord Semple, all of whom left Scotland in conse- 
quence of the confusion in the news coming from 
Flanders, hy which the Catholics were made to 
believe that his Majesty {^Philip) would do nothi^ig 
for Scotland except ivith the co-operation of the 
King. The King of Scotland was also kept in- 

1 James to Elizabetti, July 1595 (Camden Society). 

2 Francis Stuart, Earl of Bothwell, the ultra- Protestant, who had 
so often been sheltered by Elizabeth after his attacks upon James and 
his Catholic advisers, had now joined his former opponents, and lived 
for the rest of his life on Philijp's grudging charity. 



JAMES OUTWITS THE CATHOLICS 77 

formed (i.e. by the Catholics) of what was in 
progress, and he deceitfully continued on good 
terms with the Lords. They, however, knew his 
intentions, and paid no attention to his doings, 
still hoping that his Majesty (Philip) would not 
allow so much injustice to be done. But as, con- 
trary to their expectations, an answer was so long 
delayed, they began to suspect that the corrupt 
management of the Scottish King had upset the 
plan, as he not only contrived this trick in Flanders 
[i.e. to spread the false intelligence referred to above), 
but also industriously sought to gain the nobles, 
either by force or chicanery. At last, as no answer 
came (from Spain), they concluded that his manoeuvres 
had succeeded, although the King of Scots wrote 
to them repeatedly that he was of the same intention 
as they were, and was himself secretly planning the 
means (to help them), pending the arrival of aid 
from Spain. ^ He also said that it was necessary 
for him to maintain a secret correspondence with 
them. He said, however, that he must still appear 
severe publicly, and assured them that he only 
wanted a show of obedience to him, by two or three 
of them leaving Scotland for any other country but 
the dominions of the King of Spain, for as long or 

^ Archibald Priimose, writing on tlie yth August 1595 to John 
Colville (Bannatyne Club, Colville Letters) says that "^ Philip, by means 
of his instruments in Scotland, had offered James a hundred thousand 
crowns if he would give liberty of conscience to the Catholics in his 
realm, with promise of further payments when toieration was fully 
established." Primrose blames the Chancellor and other Ministers of 
James for his underhand dealings with the Catholics, but says that as 
he (James) was the same "auld man," in his opinion "there is no guid 
to be expectit at his handis," though he (Primrose) hopes to find a 
way to xmdo the " traffique." 



78 TREASON AND PLOT 

short a period as they liked. This was written to 
them secretly and with many expressions of affection ; 
but there was a public arrangement that many should 
be ostensibly banished, although only the three 
named really went. This was agreed to by the 
Catholics, in order to test the truth of the news 
from Flanders, spread by idle people there who for 
years have had no communication with Scotland. 
The Lords left their lands well guarded by the rest 
of the Catholics, such as Angus, Herrys, and Errol, 
who hold the authority of these in their absence. 
Huntly is at Cologne, and Bothwell and Semple in 
Paris. Semple first passed through Flanders to test 
the truth of the reports, but could find no impartial 
person to inform him, and went on to Paris, where 
advices were received from Huntly which caused 
them to despatch Matthew Semple to Spain to learn 
the true state of affairs. . . . We beg that the 
resolution arrived at may be prompted by the know- 
ledge that the love and determination of the Catholics 
will not waver if his Majesty will treat them in 
accordance with their deserts ; and they urge his 
Majesty to act with more promptitude either in 
deeds or resolutions in writing, and, if promises are 
punctually fulfilled, he may always count upon the 
fidelity of the Catholic Lords. — Madrid, August 

1595-"' 

Nothing can be imagined more likely to alienate 
Philip than this. The Catholic Lords confessed how 
ready they had been to fall into the trap, and to 
include in their plans for the future the King whom 
they had formerly proposed to capture and " deal 
^ Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



FAILURE OF THE CATHOLIC SCOTS 79 

with " as the Spanish King might desire. They had 
been outwitted in counsel and thoroughly beaten 
in the field ; and far from being able to help Philip 
in England, could not help themselves or their cause 
in their own country. And yet they made even 
their affection and steadfastness depend upon the 
King of Spain's "treating them in accordance with 
their deserts," and their fidelity to him conditional 
upon the punctual fulfilment of his promises and his 
greater promptitude in deeds or resolution. Philip 
was not accustomed to be addressed in this way. 
He worked behind an impenetrable veil, and, like 
the decrees of an inscrutable providence, his deci- 
sions had to be accepted by all men with bowed 
heads as the emanations of a divinely inspired 
wisdom. To make him a party to a bargain, and 
to measure allegiance to him by his own fulfilment 
of conditions, was no less than impious in the eyes 
of those by whom he was surrounded. So the 
mission of Matthew Semple was as fruitless as that 
of Balgarys had been, and the man who had won 
the game, so far, by his cunning was James Stuart. 



CHAPTER IV 

The condition of the Catholics in England — Disagreement between 
the Jesuits and Seculars — Party politics in the English Court — 
Real and pretended plots against the Queen — Father Young's 
confessions— The irreconcilable English refugees — Tlie confi-ssions 
of "Webster — Polwhele's and Collen's plots — Daniel's and Cab ill's 
confessions — Arrest of Father Henry Walpole — The doubtful 
evidence in support of most of the so-called plots. 

We have hitherto been concerned mainly in de- 
scribing the intrigues by which it was proposed to 
utilise the Catholic elements in Scotland and Ireland 
for the purpose of subverting the established order 
in England. We must now glance at the position 
of the English Catholics themselves in the new 
circumstances which followed the defeat of the 
Armada. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, 
the general desire for peace, and the lack of authori- 
tative fixity of the Roman practice, had caused the 
mass of the people, clerical and lay, to acquiesce 
without open revolt in the change in the religion 
of the country. They attended church, it is true 
with some mental reservation, and not a few of 
them still secretly observed the old practices ; but 
a generation that had already seen at least three 
radical changes effected by law in the established 
religion of the country was not prepared to risk 
property and life by going to war with authority 
to resist the fourth ; and there can be no doubt 
that, if England had been free from outside inter- 



THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS 8i 

ference, the end of Elizabeth's reign would have 
seen the Reformation permanently and peacefully 
settled in the country by a workable compromise 
depending upon general consent. The earlier con- 
spiracies against Elizabeth and Protestantism that 
took place arose, not amongst the common people 
or the clergy, but amongst the nobles and higher 
gentry — the Arundels, Lumleys, Nevilles, Percies, 
Howards, Dacres, Montagus, and the like — who 
resented the displacing of the ancient nobility from 
their commanding position in the councils of the 
sovereign,^ in favour of the secretarial class and new 
men who were trusted by Elizabeth. It was with 
the nobles that the successive Spanish ambassadors 
from 1559 to 1585 wove their constant plots; but 
the evil fate that overtook the successive conspira- 
cies and conspirators had, before the time of the 
Armada, served as a warning to a class that collec- 
tively had so much to lose by unsuccessful rebellion ; 
and although the majority of them remained Catholic 
in their sympathies, they had grown too cautious 
to be openly disloyal. 

That a condition of things that threatened to 
allow Catholicism to die out gradually and peace- 
fully in England should be accepted without a 
struggle by the leaders of the Church abroad was 
not to be expected. A certain number of English- 
men and Welshmen, who were either too con- 
scientious or too ambitious and deeply pledged 

1 This was the principal pretext for the rising of the Northern 
Earls, and was recited in the Pope's Bull of excommunication in 1570 
as being one of the great misdeeds of Elizabeth which had called for 
her condemnation. 

F 



82 TREASON AND PLOT 

to change their faith at the bidding of Queen and 
Parliament, retired to Catholic countries, where they 
might enjoy their religion openly without molesta- 
tion. These men had no more desire, at iirst, to 
see their country submitted to the foreigner than 
other Englishmen ; but they were naturally de- 
termined, if they could, to see her Catholic. The 
establishment of Father Allen's seminary at Douai 
in 1568 answered this wish, by providing for the 
education of young Englishmen in the Catholic 
faith. Allen himself was good, gentle, and single- 
hearted. Whilst yet a layman he had done his 
best in England to dissuade his fellow-Catholics 
from attending the Reformed services, and thus 
gradually lapsing to Protestantism ; and the imme- 
diate object of his seminary was to furnish a stream 
of ardent young zealots to preach the same doctrine.^ 
All sorts of youths flocked to the new school. Lads 
yearning for adventure, runaway apprentices and 
students ; even soldiers and serving-men, it is said : 
Allen's charity was large enough to receive them all, 
but in such a mixed assembly there could not 
fail to be many who were but ill adapted to the 
mission they undertook. From 1574 onward great 
numbers of Seminarists went to England from Douai 
and the other colleges that were started in imitation 
of it.^ That their ministrations were in the main 

1 The oath taken by a Seminarist, after confessing the signal mercy 
of God iu bringing him out of his own country, so affected by heresy, 
pledges him to devote himself entirely to divine service, and " with the 
divine grace in due time to receive hol}^ orders, and to return into 
England to convert the souls of my countrymen and kindred, when 
and as often as it shall seem good to the superiors of this College" 
(Fuller's " Church History "). 

2 Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, wrote in December 1579 to the 



THE SEMINARISTS 83 

religious, and, although sometimes ignorant and 
unwise, not political, is seen by the fact that up 
to 1581 only three persons lost their lives for 
Catholicism in England under Elizabeth ; ^ although 
from 1570 onward all Catholic propagandists and 
"obstinate" recusants were treated as disloyal sub- 
jects, and imprisoned when caught. Elizabeth and 
Burghley have been attacked bitterly for what is 
assumed to be their religious persecution of Catholics 
who had no direct designs against the State. They 
certainly made little or no distinction between those 
who plotted the invasion and subjugation of their 
native land, and those who, whilst proud of being 
Englishmen, and of the growing potency of their 
nation under the rule of the Queen, wished at least 
for liberty to worship as their consciences or teach- 
ing dictated. That this was the case may be partly 
attributed to the ideas of a period when disregard of 
the uniformity prescribed by law was considered to 

King : " The number of Catholics, thank God, is daily increasing here, 
owing to the seminary for Englishmen which your Majesty ordered to 
be supported at Douai, whence there has come in this past year — and 
from the college at Kome — a hundred Englishmen who have been 
ordained there : by which means a great number of people are being 
converted, generally persons who never heard the truth preached 
before. These priests go about disguised as laymen, and although 
they are young men, their good life, fervency, and zeal in the work are 
admirable. God's grace is clearly witnessed in the way they are led 
on by His hand in this ministry, and in the joy and fortitude with 
which they offer themselves for martyrdom whenever they are called 
upon to suffer it for the Lord's sake. Some have suffered thus with 
invincible firmness and ineffable content, following in the footsteps 
of so many of their predecessors. Of the old priests very few now 
remain, and they are imprisoned strictly" (Spanish Calendar, vol. ii.). 

^ Challoner, " Memoirs of Missionary Priests." This, however, does 
not include Felto:i, Dr. Storey, Woodhouse, and Father Plumtree, whose- 
offences were clearly treasonable. 



84 TREASON AND PLOT 

be a dangerous departure from the obedience due 
to the sovereign ; but, as Lord Burghley has himself 
argued in masterly fashion in " The Execution of 
Justice," it was far more directly traceable to the 
aggressive action of Pius V., a pontiff remarkable 
neither for his wisdom nor his learning. At a time 
when England was in the throes of revolution the 
Pope thought fit, probably at the suggestion of Dr. 
Morton, Dr. Webb, and the Bishop of Ross, to throw 
down the gauntlet, and by a Bull excommunicated 
Elizabeth and her obedient subjects. She, already 
a beloved and powerful sovereign, was denounced 
in coarse and brutal language as an usurper, whose 
subjects were enjoined to refuse allegiance, and 
were declared to be absolved from obedience to her, 
notwithstanding their oaths. Thenceforward those 
who acknowledged the Pope's supremacy could not 
acknowledge the Queen's right to the throne, and were 
constructive traitors ; and Elizabeth, recognising her 
danger, naturally treated them as such. The Northern 
Earls were in rebellion ; Ridolfi and the Spanish 
ambassador were planning the Queen's murder, and 
Mary Stuart was already seducing from his allegiance 
the greatest of English nobles with the bait of 
marriage. That the priests who preached obedience 
to the Pope and the laymen who believed in such 
teaching should be put in a place where they could 
do no harm was therefore a necessary measure of 
self-preservation on the part of the Government,'^ 

1 It should be remarked that, contrary to the opinion expressed by 
most English historians, the Bull, very far from being promoted by 
Philip, greatly annoyed him. The intrusion of Popes and Churchmen 
into politics without his connivance caused him endless trouble. The 



THE BULL OF EXCOMMUNICATION 85 

who could not be expected to draw fine distinctions 
between Catholics and Catholics. With the dis- 
turbances in the English College at Rome and the 
participation of the Jesuits in the English Mission 
(1580), the inevitable division of the Catholics 
showed itself both in England and abroad. There 
were a dozen excuses which were good enough for 
the disregard of the Pope's Bull by those English 
Catholics who did not want to see their country 
under a foreign yoke. They had not seen the Bull 
itself; some, with Aquinas, denied the validity of 
the excommunication of sovereigns and people en 
masse, and others questioned the right of the Pope 
to compel them to expose themselves to risk of loss 
of life and goods by rebellion. But to those who 
accepted to the full the Papal authority, and to the 
extreme Jesuit party, the Bull was an ample warrant 
for, nay, a direct incentive to, disloyalty ; and from 
the time when this party obtained a leading share in 
directing the English Mission it was a war to the 
death between Elizabeth and the Catholics.^ 

conversion of England was to him a secondary consideration. He 
wanted either her friendship or her subjection. 

^ Father Mush, one of Allen's favourite pupils and a most respected 
seminary priest, thus wrote during the appeal against the authority of 
the Archpriest : " At their first ingress (into England) the Jesuits so 
acted as to provoke the Queen and Magistrates to enact most cruel laws 
before unheard of against the Seminarists. The Fathers interfered in 
the government of the clergy. One of the Jesuits {i.e. Heyward) con- 
ducted himself as if he had been a legate ad latere of the Holy See,'' 
&c., &c. Quoted in Law's " Jesuits and Seculars ." 

In the appellant's declaration to the Pope, Clement VII., in the same 
cause, the secular priests wrote : " Father Persons was the principal 
author, incentor, and mover of all our garboils at home and abroad. 
He fled from the Mission like a dastardly soldier, consulting his own 
safety . . . but safe abroad he writes treason and threats of invasion, 
which so incenses the English magistrates that they rise up against us 



86 TREASON AND PLOT 

In an earlier chapter it has been pointed out that 
the exposure of the ultimate plans of this party 
by the events of the Armada still further accen- 
tuated the division between the two sections of 
the English Catholics. Englishmen, as a rule, 
disliked and looked down upon Scotsmen, but at 
least the Kinoj of Scots was a descendant of the 
royal house of England, and spoke English of a 
sort ; and although the idea of a Scot reigning over 
South Britain was not a welcome one, it was more 
acceptable to the mass of the people than that of 
a Spanish sovereign — a beaten enemy, with the 
Inquisition and all the old abuses, religious and 
political, in his train. And so it happened that 
at the time of which we are now writing (1593-95) 
the English Catholics, as a body, were not ready to 
second a Spanish invasion of their country. The 
English Catholic priests came over still by scores 
on their Mission, disguised and suffering hardships 
and dangers untold. They were imprisoned, tor- 
tured, and, if firm, executed, with all the refined 
horrors of death, for treason. Wisbech Castle was 
crammed with Catholic clerics who were less in- 
volved than some of their brethren, and recusant 
laymen were harried by ruinous fines, by imprison- 
ment, and by galling supervision, until they were 
worried into conformity, exile, or death. 

But withal, they, like the rest of their countrymen, 

and execute their laws. They exclaim that it is not the concern of 
religion that busies us, but that under that cloak we meddle in politics 
and practice the ruin of the State " (ibid). It will be seen by this how 
the inoffensive Catholic priests were thus punished for the reckless 
and venomous writings of Persons, of which most of them entirely 
disapproved. 



PERSECUTION OF CATHOLICS 87 

who had witnessed in person the growing greatness 
and wealth of England under the consummate 
government of the Queen, were freshly quickened 
with pride and love for the land that gave them 
birth. Seminarists who came from their foreign 
schools to England entered, after a few months of 
contact with their fellow-countrymen, into the same 
patriotic humour ; and, hard as was the lash that 
fell upon them by the savage enactments against 
recusancy passed in the Parliament of 1593, to which 
reference has been made, few of the Catholics re- 
sident in England were really traitors to the State. 
But they suffered for the ignorance and bitterness 
of those of their countrymen who lived abroad, and 
were out of touch with the patriotic feeling which 
had grown up in England during the years of their 
exile. Persons and his Jesuits were to all intents 
and purposes foreigners. Allen, Morton, Holt, Sir 
William Stanley, Sir Francis Englefield, the Duchess 
of Feria, Dr. Stillington, Hugh Owen, Heighington, 
and the rest of their party, who posed as the great 
authorities upon English affairs in the counsels of 
Philip, had not seen their native land for many 
years. Before the Armada they had one and all 
assured the King that a great Catholic England was 
yearning with open arms to welcome the Spaniards 
as liberators and friends. " Not our England, but 
your England," said Persons's Valladolid scholars to 
Philip, their patron, in their fulsome address to him. 
Growing more and more bitter with repeated dis- 
appointment and failure, seeing, as the years sped 
on, their golden dreams of mitres, titles, and com- 
mands recede farther from them, whilst their poor 



88 TREASON AND PLOT 

doles of pensions were irregularly and grudgingly 
paid by Philip's officers, and the bread of exile grew 
harder, despairing counsels of a way out by the 
murder of the Queen or her Ministers alternated 
now with the schemes of invasion and conquest, of 
which they talked so freely, and, as we have seen, 
with so little warrant. 

The various plans for the assassination of Eliza- 
beth up to this period had been mainly originated in 
England by nobles and gentry who sought foreign 
patronage or assistance for their schemes of ambi- 
tion. This was the case with the E-idolfi plot, the 
Guise plan of 1583, and the Babington conspiracy. 
Others, again, like that for which Dr. Parry suffered, 
and that of Moody and young Stafford, were more or 
less bogus plots, in which agents-provocateurs were 
sacrificed to the exigencies of party politics.^ The 
violent and mischievous talk of the exiles in Flanders, 
many of them Irishmen belonging to Sir M^illiam 
Stanley's rebel regiment, was noM^ brought to Eng- 
land, distorted and exaggerated by eager spies, or by 
starved, half-distracted Seminarists, torn by the rack 
or terrified by the sight of it to say anything that they 
thought would for the moment please their captors. 
Much of such stuff was obviously untrue, or at least 
untrustworthy, but it was made the most of in 
England, for two reasons. Anything that aroused 

1 My reason for this belief is given in the " Great Lord Burghley." 
Camden's lines reflect the general feeling in England at the time. 
" Thus did the English fugitives, lewd priests, and lay villains together 
plot and contrive the ruin of the Queen by all the arts they could use ; 
and all from a pernicious principle of bigotry rooted in their minds 
that princes excommunicated are not fit to live ; and the Spanish 
Ministers seconded the design and improved their hatred as far as it 
would go." 



THE MURDER PLOTS 89 

horror and detestation of Spain, and. of those Eng- 
lishmen who were assumed to have sold their bodies 
and souls to her, was useful — as we have seen in the 
report of the Parliament of 1593 — in keeping alive 
the patriotism of the country, inciting its liberality in 
the matter of supplies for defence against so das- 
tardly a foe, and in attracting to the Protestant side 
those waverers who declined to continue their identi- 
fication with a cause which allowed regicide to be 
used for its ends. 

The other reason why these so-called plots were 
frequently exaggerated unduly must be sought in 
the political situation in England itself. Lord 
Burghley and his party had always stood for 
moderation and a mutual understanding with 
Spain, as opposed to the Puritan, Protestant, or 
war party, now led by Essex. One of the secrets 
of Burghley's great influence had been his elaborate 
system of spies everywhere, which had given him a 
monopoly of information, and an unrivalled control 
over affairs. Essex determined to organise a similar 
system, which should enable him to countercheck 
the Cecils. This he had done between 1590 and 
1594 at great cost to himself. To aid him in 
his plans he had by his side for a time one of the 
most plausible, unscrupulous scoundrels in Europe, 
to whom none of the wiles of statecraft were un- 
known. Antonio Perez, the absconding Minister 
of Philip II., was able, as no other man could be, 
to spread the network of treachery over Europe, 
with the object of enabling Essex to draw England 
into war with Spain, and so to vanquish the 
moderate policy of Cecil. 



90 TREASON AND PLOT 

But the Cecil party could not afford to be outdone, 
either in vigilance or in solicitude for the safety of 
the Queen, and each organisation constantly en- 
deavoured to " score off" the other by the sensational 
nature of its discoveries, and at the same time to 
blacken the character and discredit the bona Jides 
of its rival. The spies were necessarily persons of 
questionable life ; nearly always sold both to Spain 
and England ; and it was usually easy to convict 
them of treachery. It was, in such case, often the 
policy of their employers to abandon them rather 
than seem to countenance men or methods rendered 
infamous by accusation ; and the agent provocateur, 
the eager delator, or the vain babbler, was caught in 
his own lure and sent to rot in dungeons or die a 
cruel death, whilst his noble paymaster, who knew 
or could guess the true circumstances, affected horror 
at so much wickedness. 

This keen competition in the discoveries of treason 
caused the unfortunate priests or suspects who were 
caught in or on their way to England to be treated 
as if each one of them was the emissary of a murder 
conspiracy or guilty of a design against the State ; 
and there are in the Record OfRce (Domestic 
Papers) many scores of sheets of depositions of such 
men, telling, under torture or threat, their poor 
squalid little stories of hardship and suffering, but 
rarely any more important political secrets than the 
vague tittle-tattle of the seminaries or the bragga- 
docio of renegade soldiers and malcontent refugees. 

A typical case of this sort, of which full particulars 
are available, was that of a priest usually called 
Dingley, but whose real name seems to have been 



"DINGLEY'S" ARREST 91 

James Young, of Eylescliffe, Durham, He had lived 
abroad in the household of Cardinal Allen, after the 
death of the Bishop of Ross, whose servant he pro- 
fessed formerly to have been. When v^^e first hear 
of him in August 1592, he had been caught some 
months before by Lord Burghley's pursuivants, and 
vras lodged in the Poultry Compter in the city of 
London. He v^^as ready at this time, in appearance, 
to tell all he knew.^ He was, he said, a humble 
person, sent by Cardinal Allen to fetch back two 
priests, Warford and Almond, who were to be sent 
elsewhere as spies for Father Persons, and more 
especially to persuade another priest, named John 
Fixer, to return to Allen, who promised to make 
him his chaplain, it having been discovered that 
Fixer was secretly giving information to Lord 
Burghley. He was, he said, accompanied from 
Paris by several English priests, whom he had not 
previously known, and he had heard the directions 
given to them by their guide in Paris as to the 
person they should seek in London. He had little 
to tell about the English refugees in Flanders, but 
had heard Morgan (who belonged to the Scottish 
faction) inveigh against Allen and Persons, and 
knew of the eiforts which he, Morgan, and the late 
Bishop of Ross had made to convince people that 



1 He had been captured at Easter 1592, and we learn by the letter 
of another prisoner, a spy named Beard, to Antony Ashley, Clerk of 
the Council, that Young had remained obstinately silent, notwithstand- 
ing the efforts of the justices, until August. Not even his name could 
be discovered until the spy Beard obtained access to him ; " when 
within ten days I discovered him altogether " (Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. 
p. 403). Thenceforward the prisoner seems to have been only too eager 
to give information in return for his own safety. 



92 TREASON AND PLOT 

the Scots King would come over to the Catholic side. 
Sir William Stanley, on the contrary, had in his 
hearing breathed fire and fury, and talked at large 
of the plans for the coming invasion of England. 
Young ends his first written confession by asking 
pardon if he has done wrong, pleads youth and 
evil counsel of others, and promises to divulge the 
names of all the Seminarists he can discover. 

This was all very well as far as it went, though 
most of it was untrue. Mr. Justice Young and the 
spy Beard knew that if so much as this was divulged 
voluntarily, a good deal probably remained behind. 
An artful subterfuge then brought to Lord Burghley 
a long document, written by the prisoner,^ saying 
that he had already imparted to the Privy Council 
as much as his life is worth, and will now make a 
clean breast of the whole business. He confessed 
now that he was a priest, and gave his real name 
and place of education. He bad, he said, gained a 
Queen's scholarship at Durham, and had left that 
city in 1579 for the ostensible purpose of proceeding 
to Cambridge University. Lodging in London in 
the house of Dr. Barrett for two months, he and 
his host then went to Flanders via Gravesend and 
Dover, under the pretext of joining the army under 
the command of Queen Elizabeth's lover and^anc(/, 
the Duke d'Alen^on. Once safe across the Channel, 
he proceeded to Rheims (where Allen's seminary 
then was), on the advice of one Darbishire, a Jesuit. 
There he remained for a time studying for the 
priesthood, but with great repugnance, as he says. 
Subsequently he was sent to the English College in 

1 Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 403, and State Papers, Domestic, cxlii. 



"DINGLEY'S" CONFESSIONS 93 

Rome, where he studied for seven . years ; was re- 
ceived into the priesthood, and preached in Latin 
hefore the Pope. He was then destined to read 
divinity at Rheims ; but before he could leave Rome, 
Father Persons begged the Rector at Rheims not 
to send any priests to England in that year (1589), 
but to let him have some for his new college at 
Valladolid. Young was accordingly sent thither 
with four other priests (one of them being probably 
the Father Cecil of whom I have already spoken), 
and found, as yet, only four students, though the 
number rapidly increased to thirty-six. Young has 
much to say of the manner in which Persons whipped 
round amongst the Spanish nobility to obtain funds 
for his new seminary, and the prisoner himself was 
designated one of six priests who were to proceed 
to England on a similar mission. The travelling 
disguise assumed by four of the priests on this occa- 
sion was that of English galley-slaves captured in 
the English expedition to Portugal, and now re- 
leased by the Spaniards, whilst Young and another 
were to sail in Scottish ships and land in Scotland, 
whence they were to find their way into England. 
But Young had enough of it by the time he got 
into the Downs, and " being unable to bear the 
seas," he landed at night and trusted to Providence 
for safety. All that night he lay under a hedge, 
and his first care in the morning was to change his 
outlandish Spanish garb for clothes less conspicuous. 
He had money, apparently, but knew nobody in 
London. He recollected, however, to have heard 
Father Persons tell the priests who were sent direct 
to England as galley-slaves that they were to seek 



94 TREASON AND PLOT 

a certain Mr. Wiseman who lived at Garnet's Rents, 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, and in his presence to break a 
cake as a token.^ Young accordingly sought the 
person indicated, and went through the same per- 
formance, being welcomed, and forwarded to Lady 
Throgmorton's house at Upton, beyond Stratford, in 
Essex. In her house he stayed for a month, minis- 
tering and saying Mass ; but the lady was fright- 
ened at a new proclamation against harbouring 
priests, and giving him a change of linen and 
twenty marks, arranged that he should sleep at an 
inn in London, taking his meals at the house of a 
Catholic family named Mompeson, in Clerkenwell ; 
the excuse for his presence there being his supposed 
courting of a " young gentlewoman " living there 
called Mrs. Temperance Davis. Whilst he and 
another priest were sitting at table in this house, 
the constables suddenly appeared at the door to 
search for such quarry. Young fled by the back 
way, and contrived to run to earth at the hospitable 
house of Wiseman in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; but the 
other priest (Patterson) was captured and shortly 
afterwards was executed. The fugitive was then sent 
to board at the house of one Cole, " a schoolmaster, 
at the upper end of Holborn ; " but he also soon got 
into trouble, and again Young fled to Wiseman. 
The latter, however, had to leave town, and the 
priest went to lodge at the White Swan, Holborn 
Bridge. There was no safety in inns, for they were 
too well watched, and Young was promptly taken 

^ The Wiseman family, most of wliom seem to have lived in Essex, 
were notable recusants, and some of them suffered severely from the 
delation of Young, 



"DINGLEY'S" CONFESSIONS 95 

prisoner and lodged in the Compter at Easter, 1592, 
just as he was about to set out on horseback to his 
native county of Durham, in the hope of finding it 
" more quiet than this." 

These personal confidences, however interesting, 
were of less importance to the Government than 
news of conspiracies. The authorities had already 
detected Young in many misstatements, and he was 
pressed further. He was a mere youth, he protested, 
and had not been admitted into the company of the 
serious men of his college, but he had heard Allen 
say that he had dissuaded Ballard as earnestly as he 
could from the plot for which he suffered {i.e. the 
Babington plot) ; " but that Ballard was rather ad- 
dicted to Morgan and Charles Paget." He (Young) 
had been told, too, that the King of Scots had turned 
Catholic, and all the Scottish Catholic bishops were 
to be recalled to their sees, which happy event had 
been greatly aided by Dr. Lewis, Bishop of Cassano. 
" Yet after the death of the Queen of Scots both 
Allen and Persons sought to stir up the Spanish 
King, who never could be persuaded to attempt 
anything against England in her lifetime, objecting 
that he should travail for others. She being dead, 
the expectation was increased for the last invasion." 

All this was obviously merely the loose gossip of 
past events by men who were not behind the scenes ; 
but the supply of it was apparently unlimited. The 
names of Englishmen ostensibly in the Spanish ser- 
vice, their movements, salaries, and conversations 
are given ad nauseam; but as many of these men 
were actually in Burghley's pay, and sent him 
regular advices, we can imagine the grim smile of 



96 TREASON AND PLOT 

the aged Lord Treasurer as he read this vague tittle- 
tattle of their dangerous plans. Still, as has already 
been pointed out in a previous chapter, the declara- 
tions of even this poor sieve of a man and his like 
were useful and valuable when they repeated the 
threats of invasion constantly uttered by Persons, 
Stanley, and others, and exaggerated the great pre- 
parations that were being made in Spain with that 
object. Young prayed abjectly for his liberation in 
return for his abundant declarations. His misery, 
his long imprisonment, his penitence, and his ar- 
dent desire to serve as a spy on his fellow-Catholics, 
were repeated at intervals for many months ; but he 
had to be squeezed quite dry before they let him go. 
Lists had to be furnished by him of every Catholic 
he had ever known, at home or abroad. All those 
who had sheltered him, and even their friends, had 
to be denounced. Fellow-priests, who had left Spain 
or Italy on the English Mission, had to be betrayed, 
every one of them, before at length the wretched 
man saw the doors of his prison open, and he was 
free to carry his craven heart whithersoever he 
willed, envying till his dying day his firmer brethren 
who stood steadfast even to death and martyrdom. 

Sometimes the pressure, such as was exerted on 
Young, gave a clue, even a slight one, to some- 
thing that seemed to be really important, and in that 
case it is curious to trace the tortuous devices by 
which more information was obtained. The clever 
decipherer and forger, Thomas Phellips, who was 
ostensibly the collector of customs at Leadenhall, 
was rarely at a loss for a plan, by means of which 
fresh avowals could be extracted from unsuspecting 



HOW EVIDENCE WAS OBTAINED 97 

accomplices ; and Topcliffe, the examining justice, 
had a persuasive way with the prisoners themselves, 
that rarely failed. 

As an instance of how a case was worked up by 
such devices, the notes of Phellips respecting a 
Catholic named Bisley are curious. He sets down 
in his memoranda that he had learnt that Bisley 
had been sent secretly to England late in the year 
1 59 1 by Sir William Stanley and Hugh Owen ; ^ 
and, as he carried letters, he is to be asked, if he 
can be caught, whether he had not a message for 
a priest named Birket or Burke, who Phellips knew 
to have been lodging at the house of an Italian who 
kept a bowling-alley in Bishopsgate Street, on the 
corner of what is now the thronging Liverpool 
Street. Bisley was said to have brought letters to 
be delivered to one Webster, a recusant who had 
long been a prisoner in the Marshalsea ; but Phellips 
suspected that Webster was to deliver some of them 
to Birket ; and Bisley, if he could be caught, was to 
be charged that this was the case. Bisley on former 
occasions was known to have brought letters for 
Webster secreted inside the buttons of his garments, 
one of which letters, it was said, threatened to kill 
the Queen, Bisley being promised a pension by 
Stanley and Owen when he came back to Flanders. 
This much Phellips had been told by his spies 
abroad, and the knowledge already in hand was 
used as a lever to obtain more. The next move 
was for Phellips' s tool, Sterrell, alias St. Main, alias 
Robinson, a pretended Catholic, who served as a spy 
to the English refugees in Flanders, and wrote to 

^ State Papers, Domestic, ccxl. 

G 



98 TREASON AND PLOT 

them only what Phellips dictated, to write in the 
name of Robinson, as from Liege, to a Catholic 
named Morice at the Swan in Bishopsgate Without 
(May 1592), telling him, amongst many other 
things, at Phellips's dictation, that "the plot in 
England is to kill the Queen. Stanley has sent in 
one Bisley of Flushing, sometime a soldier there, 
a little, short, black fellow with a red face." This 
letter was of course written for the purpose of 
being intercepted and shown to Webster, and also 
to Bisley and any of his companions if they were 
taken. In their confusion they might blurt out 
further admissions or confirmation. Webster seems 
to have denied, probably with truth, all knowledge 
of Bisley and of the alleged plot. But he was care- 
fully watched by spies in the Marshalsea, and his 
every word repeated by them to Mr. Justice Young. 
Months afterwards, in September 1592, a fellow- 
prisoner, a spy, was walking in the prison yard 
with him, when Webster in weariness asked, " Shall 
we never be released V "I fear not," replied the 
spy. Whereupon Webster said that " ere long God 
or the devil would fetch her and them that detained 
them ; then asking him (the spy) to see that no one 
was looking, Webster went and talked to Snap, the 
priest, at his chamber window." This was some- 
thing. It was thought to inculpate Webster in the 
supposed murder plot, and the spy-prisoner was 
again set to work. In a few weeks he could inform 
the Justice that when a prisoner named Brownell 
was told that a certain man had been committed at 
the previous Easter for seeking to kill the Queen, 
he had replied "that many were committed for that, 



THE MANUFACTURE OF "PLOTS" 99 

but some one would make an end of her one day, 
and then all those commitments would be void and 
all would be well." When the apprentices were 
unruly and would have broken up the Marshalsea, 
Richard Webster, another prisoner, said "that they 
could not agree because they had no head, but if 
they had one all the Commons would rise, for they 
all disliked the State and Government." This was 
another step, and by the 23rd December matters 
were sufficiently advanced for Webster himself to 
be again brought before Justice Young for examina- 
tion with another prisoner named Faux. Webster 
said the only Bisley he knew was the priest of that 
name who had married him in the Marshalsea three 
or four years ago ; but as Young, the magistrate, 
noted that this priest Bisley had been executed, 
he was evidently not the man they sought. Both 
the prisoners denied the truth of the spy's revela- 
tions about them, and Faux was tortured without 
result. Webster had already confessed enough to 
hang him, wrote the magistrate, but he would be 
put to the torture to obtain more if the Attorney- 
General decided. The other prisoner Brownell, 
who had spoken about killing the Queen, was " too 
sick to be dealt with until he waxed stronger." 
Whether Webster was put to the torture is not 
certain, though he probably was from the sequel, 
for he was afterwards removed to Bridewell and 
Lord Keeper Puckering took him in hand. To 
him Webster subsequently wrote a letter (19th 
January 1593) again solemnly asserting his inno- 
cence of any crime against the Queen or State. 
He begs most earnestly that his every act and word 



loo TREASON AND PLOT 

may be scrutinised and his innocence made manifest. 
But the effect of the pressure put upon him is seen 
in the continuation of his letter. He had probably 
under torture repeated to Puckering certain treason- 
able speeches he had heard others pronounce, and 
had promised to play the spy or agent provocateur 
upon his friends ; and he made this a reason for 
begging that he himself might be cleared from the 
capital offence with which he was charged. "If 
my innocency be not known," he wrote, " your 
Lordship may think that I told you of the speeches 
more for fear of my life than for service to her 
Majesty or the country. Until this matter of mine 
be thoroughly sifted I cannot go forward with the 
great good likely to be procured to the land." 
What eventually happened to him does not appear ; 
he probably suffered death after thus giving fresh 
clues to other "plots" which would be worked up 
like that with which he was charged. Public indig- 
nation and hatred were in this way constantly kept 
at fever-heat against a party which was represented 
as constantly plotting against the life of the Queen, 
though one loose hint of a spy or an impatient 
word from a distracted prisoner was evidently a 
sufficient foundation for the manufacture of a suc- 
cession of such plots. 

But though many of the so-called murder con- 
spiracies for which perfectly innocent Catholics 
suffered were thus elaborated, there were un- 
doubtedly several that were in some degree 
dangerous and real. They all emanated from the 
same small group of extremists in Flanders, with 
the more or less open connivance of the Spanish 



THE MURDER PLOTS . loi 

Ministers there — though probably at this juncture 
without the aid of Philip himself. The proposed 
perpetrators were usually some of the wild, reck- 
less swashbucklers, English or Irish, who swaggered, 
drank, and diced in the Flemish cities. There 
seems to have been no attempt at concealment. 
We are told that these plots were regularly dis- 
cussed at a council table at which sat such men 
as Stanley, Owen, Jacques Francis (Stanley's Bur- 
gundian lieutenant), and even some of the leading 
Jesuit priests, such as Holt, Sherwood, and Walpole, 
are said to have given their approval.^ 

None of these plots ever came near commission, 
and in the cases where they were not voluntarily 
confessed the pressure exerted upon the captured 
persons in prison or the sight of the rack usually 
brought out the fullest particulars. For instance, 
one Polwhele was captured on suspicion late in 1593. 
He had been backwards and forwards to Flanders 
several times, having served there as page to Sir 
William Stanley, and afterwards with his lieutenant, 
Jacques Francis, who really seems to have been a 
murderous sort of personage and the principal insti- 
gator of the plots. This was sufficient to warrant 
the arrest of Polwhele when he appeared in Eng- 
land, although he had voluntarily come over from 
Calais, avowedly for the purpose of unburdening his 
conscience to Lord Burghley of some dark secret, 
and had sought the aid of Mr. Jefferys, the English 
Consul there, to enable him to do so. The story he 
had to tell was that in the summer of 1593 Jacques 

^ See " The Estate of the English Fugitives," an extremely curious 
contemporary pamphlet giving an account of the lives of the refugees. 



I02 TREASON AND PLOT 

urged him to go to England and kill the Queen, 
saying " that no action could be more glorious than 
cutting off so wicked a member, who is likely to 
overthrow all Christendom." Soon after this hap- 
pened, Hesketh ^ was sent to England, and thereupon 
Polwhele seems to have gone to Father Sherwood 
and offered to perform the task that Jacques had 
suggested, if a fit opportunity occurred. " Jacques 
said it was a movement of the Holy Ghost. It 
could only be done when the Queen went for a 
walk or to the sermon : then she might be shot or 
stabbed, as she takes no care. If he could only 
escape for two or three hours he would be safe." 

1 It will be recollected ttat wlien. Persons sent Father Cecil to Eng- 
land from Spain on his first mission in April 1591, he instructed him 
in covert terms to sound secretly Lord Strange — son and heir of the 
Earl of Derby — as to his willingness to co-operate with a Catholic 
invasion. As the nobleman was a descendant of the Duchess of 
Suffolk, sister of Henry VIII., and one of the possible claimants to 
the Crown, his countenance would have been of great importance. 
Father Cecil on that occasion betrayed the cause to Burghley, and 
found an excuse for not fulfilling his mission ; but in the autumn of 
1593 a Catholic fugitive gentleman from Over-Darwin, Lancashire, 
who knew the Earl of Derby, was sent by Sir William Stanley to 
negotiate with the Earl and his heir as to their acceptance of the posi- 
tion of Pretenders. Sir William Stanley, in his instructions to 
Hesketh, strongly hints that he is supported in his proposal by the 
King of Spain (Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 462). Hesketh performed 
his office apparently less cautiously than he was instructed to do, and 
the Earl of Derby, fearing a trap, immediately denounced him to the 
Government (October 1593). The Earl died a day or two afterwards 
mysteriously, it was said by poison ; but the new Earl followed up the 
prosecution of Hesketh vigorously, and after much torture and suffer- 
ing of the prisoner to wring out avowals of supposed murder plots, for 
which there does not seem to have been a shadow of foundation, the 
unfortunate emissary was done to death as a traitor at St. Alban's. 
Standen, an English Catholic spy of Essex's, wrote to another Catholic 
of similar sort in France in reference to Hesketh's execution, "A 
worthy piece of work, suitable to the setters on" {i.e. Stardey, &c.), 
" who of the Catholics here at home are accursed." 



POLWHELE'S CONFESSIONS 103 

He was told first to go to Calais, and from thence 
to seek the aid of Fortescue or Sterrell/ who were 
at court to obtain permission to go to England. 
There he was to obtain access to Lord Burghley, 
and inveigh violently against Jacques, and in this 
way ingratiate himself at court. 

Every incentive to the proposed assassin's zeal 
seems to have been used by Jacques and his friends. 
He was directed to go to confession and to obtain 
absolution before he started, and sixty crowns were 
given him for his journey. At the same time as 
Polwhele's advent, an Irishman, named John Annias, 
was also captured coming into England. The first 
accusation against him was that of intending to set 
fire to the Queen's ships, by means of the same sort 
of fireballs with which the former attempt had been 
made at Dieppe. According to Polwhele's story, he 
had met Annias and his associate in the former fire- 
plot, Thompson, at Lille on the way to England. 
They had fallen into talk about another Irishman, 
named Patrick Collen, who had recently crossed 
over to England. Thompson had said that Collen 
had been sent over to kill the Queen, but that he 
(Thompson) would do it before he could.^ He was, 

^ This was walking into the lion's den indeed, for Sterrell was the 
spy -tool of Phellips. 

2 As an instance of the looseness with which suggestions of such 
jslots were made by the fugitives in Flanders, it may be cited that 
when Annias was under examination he said that " he supposed Pol- 
whele and Collen came to England to find means to kill the Queen or 
the Lord Treasurer." When asked why he " supposed " such a thing, 
he replied that " when any one comes from Brussels to England, they 
{i.e. the English in Flanders) think it^ mvist be for some service, 
and some say to kill the Queen or the Lord Treasurer, or the King of 
Portugal, or some of the secretaries" (Examination of John Annias, 
January 1594, State Papers, Dom.). 



I04 TREASON AND PLOT 

he boasted, going to England then on his errand, 
and carried a jewel to present to the Earl of Essex, 
whose follower he would become.^ They, Annias 
and Thompson, said they were going shares in the 
reward, which would be very large. The three rogues 
seem to have known each other's business perfectly, 
and each one intrigued to get rid of the other two ; 
and, as they said, to have alone the " honour " and 
profit of killing the Queen ; but, as it afterwards 
appeared, to be the first to betray the others. 
Thompson told Polwhele that Annias meant to rob 
him, whilst Annias said that Thompson intended 
to rob and "sell" them both. The end of it seems 
to have been that Thompson got Polwhele's purse 
and prudently stayed on the other side of the sea ; 
whilst Polwhele had to depend upon the charity of 
the English Consul at Calais to send him over and 
tell his story. Thenceforward, for months, Polwhele, 
CoUen, and Annias, each unknown to the others, 
continued to unfold their stories in gaol. First, 
the plan was to fire the ships, then to kill An- 
tonio Perez, to assassinate the Queen and Burghley, 
and what not. Collen really seems to have been 
hired in the first instance to kill Antonio Perez 
with a pistol, at the request of Jacques and the 
Irish Captain Eustace, who, he says, warned him 
not to undertake anything against England or the 
Queen. Father Holt at first had discountenanced 

1 As will be seen later, this bringing in of tlie name of the Earl of 
Essex was made the most of by his enemies. Another prisoner under 
torture was made to say that he had heard Hugh Owen attribute to 
the Earl aspirations to the crown. Hugh Owen thought it necessary 
categorically to deny this in a letter to Phellips, who at that time 
was believed to be attached to Essex. 



POLWHELE, COLLEN, AND ANNIAS 105 

the murder of Perez, but he eventually assured 
Collen that he might lawfully undertake anything 
for the King's service. Holt at the same time 
expressed to him his sorrow that he, a Church- 
man, had been told the exact nature of the proposed 
enterprise. But he nevertheless gave to Collen 
absolution and his blessing. The assassin Collen, 
having received ^30 in gold for the voyage, seems 
to have felt some conscientious scruples ; and on 
his consulting another priest, an Irishman named 
Thomas, he had been told that it was unlawful to 
commit murder in any circumstances. Annias, on 
the other hand, testified to having heard Captain 
Eustace and Collen himself say that the latter 
had gone, not to kill Antonio Perez, but the 
Queen, "the highest Antonio of them all," and 
that the order for doing so had come from Spain 
through Esteban de Iban-a, the Secretary of State 
for War then in Flanders. 

Whilst these two villains were swearing against 
each other as to whether the Queen or Antonio 
Perez was to be the victim, the first prisoner, 
Polwhele, was, under Topcliffe's persuasion, telling 
bit by bit a more extraordinary story still. There 
was no pretence in his case of any one but the 
Queen being aimed at. When, after some hesita- 
tion, he had consented to do the deed, and had 
informed Father Sherwood of that fact, the Jesuit 
had replied "that he was a fool for not undertaking 
it sooner, when he was first moved to it, as he 
then might have had the honour of it ; but that now 
Collen had gone on the same service, and more 
were going every day," It would be good sport 



io6 TREASON AND PLOT 

for them all, said Sir William Stanley, if Mrs. 
Elizabeth were dead ; to which, according to Pol- 
whele, the amiable Jacques assented, with a sug- 
gestion of unlimited loot during the confusion, 
" He, Polwhele, had often heard Jacques say they 
did not esteem killing Antonio Perez, who had 
done all the hurt he ever could do . . . nor the 
killing of any one else save the Queen. A man," 
he said, "would run as much risk in killing another 
person as the Queen herself ; and neither he, Jacques, 
nor Father Holt, would deal with anv but for kill- 
ing the Queen." Sherwood, he said, reproved a 
man for undertaking to poison Burghley : the Queen 
alone was to be aimed at, and Jacques' intention to 
have her killed was public talk in Brussels. 

Then, in February 1594, another Irishman, named 
Cahill, came over and made a set of avowals to 
Topcliffe at Burghley House in the Strand that 
quite threw the aforegoing revelations in the shade. 
Cahill's statement was, that an Irish gentleman, 
named Daniel,^ had informed him in the previous 
May that Sir William Stanley, Father Holt, and 
Hugh Owen wanted to employ a tall, resolute, 
desperate Irishman to go to England and kill the 
Queen. Daniel suggested that Cahill should under- 

1 Daniel wrote to Lord Burghley in the previous August 1 592 from 
Calais begging permission to come over to England safely to give some 
very important news. He warned Burghley at the same time to have 
great vigilance exercised in preventing any of Stanley's men from 
joining the Queen's forces going to France. Daniel was allowed to 
come over, and doubtless from his disclosures the whole of the other 
proceedings in England arose. In February whilst Daniel's tool, 
Cahill, was under examination, the former gave notice to the Govern- 
ment of a plan to fire the magazine in the Tower, &c. (Hatfield 
Papers, vol. iv. p. 474). 



CAHILL'S CONFESSIONS 107 

take the task and get the money ; whereupon they 
(Daniel and Cahill) should both go to England and 
divulge the plot to Lord Burghley. Cahill relates 
that Daniel then took him to Fathers Holt and 
Archer at Brussels, and they and Hugh Owen had 
said "that it would be a most blessed deed for 
him, a soldier, to kill the Queen, as by it he would 
win heaven and become a saint if he should be 
killed. If he would do it he would be chronicled 
for ever." The plan suggested to him was to get 
into the service of a courtier, " and then manage 
to waylay her (the Queen) in some progress, and 
kill her with a sword or a dagger at a gate or 
narrow passage, or, as she walked in one of her 
galleries." Cahill consented, the price being fixed 
at 100 crowns down, and 2000 and a pension if he 
were successful. Thereupon, with the blessing of 
Archer, the precious pair, Cahill and Daniel, went 
to Calais. From there the latter wrote in August 
to Lord Burghley, telling him he had an important 
revelation to make if he was allowed to go over. 
This being accorded to him, he left Cahill in Calais ; 
whilst he made the first disclosures in England. 
In Daniel's absence the two Jesuit fathers, Archer 
and Walpole, came to Calais, and finding Cahill 
still there, were very angry, and said that Stanley, 
Owen, and Holt were indignant at so much delay. 
Upon their urging, Cahill consented to sail secretly 
for England at once, and landing at Margate, came 
on to London to join Daniel, who conducted him 
to Lord Burghley. This story was, of course, con- 
firmed in every particular by Daniel ; and it iS not 
surprising to hear, as these plots were divulged 



io8 TREASON AND PLOT 

through the Cecil organisation, that mysterious hints 
were indulged in that for his own ends the Earl of 
Essex was more or less mixed up in the nefarious 
plans, as had been the case when Hesketh was 
charged and executed for having been sent over 
by Stanley to sound the Earl of Derby. 

It will be noticed that in all the declarations of 
the prisoners, there was an eagerness to prove their 
intention from the first to betray their employers, 
and that their consent to kill the Queen had never 
been sincere. There is, moreover, an utter absence 
of proof, beyond their own respective assertions and 
the conversations they had with each other. Great 
caution must therefore be exercised in accepting the 
evidence as conclusive as against their alleged in- 
stigators ; but enough residuum remains, after all 
deductions, to give grounds for believing in the 
existence of an intention on the part of some of 
them to assassinate the Queen if a favourable 
opportunity offered, or to betray the plot if the 
contrary was the case. The weakest case is against 
the Spanish Ministers, whom all English historians 
have condemned upon the flimsiest evidence, and 
especially against the King, who certainly for the 
moment would have been seriously embarrassed by 
Elizabeth's sudden death ; ^ though doubtless the 

1 As we have seen already, Philip was in no position at this time to 
take advantage of Elizabeth's death if it had occurred. He was in 
dire straits for money ; his naval preparations were utterly inadequate 
for an attempt to impose a nominee of his own upon the English 
nation as king ; he had not yet fixed upon any definite policy as to the 
course to be pursued on the Queen's death ; and, with his methods, 
nothing could be decided upon without infinite delay and considera- 
tion. He was, moreover, straining every nerve fighting a losing battle 
in France, both in Provence and Brittany, and had the greatest difii- 



RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PLOTS 109 

removal of Antonio Perez, his hated enemy, or 
of Don Antonio, the Portuguese Pretender, would 
have been extremely welcome to him. 

Hugh Owen himself wrote a spirited letter 
(March 1594) of disclaimer to Phellips, both as to 
the complicity of the Earl of Essex in any negotia- 
tions of theirs, and also as to himself or Stanley 
having urged or hired to kill the Queen any 
of the men who had confessed. He had, he said, 
never seen Collen in his life, and had hardly 
exchanged a word with Cahill or Polwhele ; and 
"neither he, Owen, nor Sir William Stanley had 
any more to do with killing the Queen than the 
man in the moon," He protested against the re- 
putation of men like himself and his associates 
being taken away by "perjured jacks, who could 
not in any Christian commonwealth bear any credit 
for witnesses." Annias, he says, " is a sorry fellow, 
who can make white powder, but would not kill a 
cat if she looked him in the face," ^ who had 
recently fled from Flanders for killing and robbing 
a Spaniard. Owen ascribed to Daniel the invention 
of the whole story about Annias, not dreaming that 
the latter was coming to England ; but on this 
point, of course, Owen was ignorant of the com- 
promising admissions of Annias himself, and of 
Polwhele with regard to him. The Duke of Parma, 
he said, was constantly receiving intelligence of 
similar plots being hatched against him in England, 

culty in protecting his own coasts and commerce. He was not yet 
nearly ready to take advantage of tlie deatli of Elizabeth. ; and in my 
opinion at this period did not desire her sudden removal. 

1 Owen does not attempt to deny the accixsation of having employed 
Annias to burn the fleet. 



no TREASON AND PLOT 

but always disdained to notice them. " If the 
Queen and her council would do the same, they 
need never unquiet themselves as they do, nor so 
easily permit false juries to cast away so many 
innocent men." 

No doubt the confessions of the criminals were 
in most cases interested or exaggerated, but Hugh 
Owen's denials fail to carry conviction sufficient to 
demolish their stories altogether. An age that saw 
Henry III., Guise, Orange, and Henry IV. assassi- 
nated was not squeamish about killing princes, if 
they were considered to be in the way ; and the few 
violent extremists in Flanders, and more especially 
Jacques, belonged to the visionary type from which 
regicides are usually drawn. 

Another case of which much stir was made 
happened shortly before Owen's letter was written. 
In January 1594 three persons were caught whilst 
landing surreptitiously near Flamboro Head in 
Yorkshire. One of them was found to be Father 
Henry Walpole, the Jesuit to whom Cahill's con- 
fession had referred, the other two being one Lingen 
and Walpole's young brother, both of them being 
soldiers in Stanley's regiment. Young Walpole was 
quite communicative from the first, but the other 
two prisoners for a time refused to make any 
admission. Father Walpole was looked upon as 
an important capture, and in the light of Cahill's 
reference to him it was immediately assumed that 
his coming to England was for some deep political 
object. His brother confessed that the priest had 
given him six scraps of parchment — which are 
believed to have been passports for the conveyance 



FATHER HENRY WALPOLE in 

of recusants abroad — and twelve letters ; which were 
buried in the sand of the shore where the prisoners 
landed. Topcliffe was sent down to York to " work 
up " the case, and disinterred the letters, which, as 
they must have indicated many correspondents in 
England, so much delighted the Earl of Huntingdon, 
President of the North, that we are told that "his 
Lordship leaped for joy," when they were slowly 
unfolded, dried, and read. " Much lies hidden," 
wrote Topcliffe, " in the Jesuit and Lingen which 
cannot be digged out without further authority." 
The *' digging out " process was a loDg and painful 
one for the wretched prisoner.^ Again and again 
Father Walpole protested that his mission was a 
purely religious one : he was to administer the 
sacraments and exhort Catholics to remain faithful, 
obeying in all things his superior in England, Father 
Garnet ; but he stoutly denied his sympathy in 
plans for a Spanish invasion or subjection of his 
country; "which," he said, "would ruin England, 
seeing the vicious and wanton character of Spani- 
ards." He repelled, too, with horror the suggestion 
that he favoured the assassination of the Queen. 
But alas ! it was discovered that, when he was about 
to set out from Spain on his voyage, Father Persons 

^ At one of his public examinations the unhappy man said that he 
had been put to the torture no less than fourteen times. The most 
common torture to which he was subjected seems to have been that 
of suspending him by sharp irons cutting into the flesh by the hands 
for six or seven hours at a time, the tips of the toes just touching the 
ground. A most interesting account of Father Walpole and of the 
awful cruelty with which he was treated — though probably not worse 
than hundreds of other poor creatures equally innocent of treason — 
will be found in Dr. Augustus Jessop's " One Generation of a Norfolk 
House." 



112 TREASON AND PLOT 

had carried him to King Philip, who had said to 
him '' Dios os encamina" — God further you; aud 
he had gone thence to Secretary Esteban de Ibarra 
in Flanders, from whom he had received some 
money. Besides, he confessed that he was to 
report himself to Garnet, who, as Lord Burghley 
argued, "might haply commit to him some matter 
of the State." ^ In vain he prayed for mercy, for 
mere life. He would conform to the law, and 
preach in the English Church according to the 
word of the Gospel. He would betray all his 
associates, break all his vows. It was of no avail : 
the unfortunate Jesuit was carried to York again 
with others in like case, and there suffered the 
death of a traitor." There was not a shred of 
evidence, except Cahill's indirect implication, that 
Walpole was privy to the murder plot; but the 
prisoner's disclaimer of any sympathy in a Spanish 
invasion of England is valueless, even if true, as 
the efforts of his superiors in that direction are 
abundantly recorded under their own hands : he 
was a Jesuit, bound blindly to obey, and, as a 

^ Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 608. 

2 Father Walpole with another priest in like case, Alexander Rawlins, 
suftered martyrdom on the 7th April 1595. The death meted out to 
all these poor creatures was hanging for a short time and then, often 
before they were unconscious, disembowelling. One of the most 
dreadful — and apparently undeserved — punishments was that inflicted 
upon Father Robert Southwell, the chaplain of Philip, Earl of Arundel, 
who was indicted for disaffection at the time of the Armada, but died 
in the Tower. The chaplain Southwell was less fortunate. There 
was no pretence in his case of his having been accomplice in plots ; he 
was simply indicted of being a priest and of performing Mass in the 
Queen's dominions. After more than three years of the most heart- 
rending cruelty in the Tower, he was hanged and disembowelled at 
Tyburn on the 21st February 1595. 



COMPLICITY IN THE PLOTS 113 

member of the Society, his personal sympathies 
went for nothing. 

It will be seen by the cases recited in this chapter 
that the accusations that have been repeated by 
nearly every English historian from Elizabeth's time 
to our own, of widespread and numerous plots by 
Catholics to assassinate the Queen at this period, are 
to a large extent unsupported by serious evidence. 
That a small party of extreme men may have counte- 
nanced such plans is certain, and that some of the 
wild schemes of regicide, so readily confessed under 
torture by the intended assassins themselves, were 
real and dangerous, is more than probable, but that 
any large section of Catholics, clerical or lay, 
approved of such means of forwarding their religious 
objects is untrue, and an impartial examination of 
the whole of the known facts will prove this to be 
the case. In accordance with the usual practice, it 
was the policy of the English Government at the 
time to blacken the character and methods of the 
national enemy as much as possible, and it was 
especially the object of the Essex party to exas- 
perate English feeling to the point of forcing Eliza- 
beth to declared and open national war with Philip. 
Heligious feeling, moreover, ran very high in England 
itself, and for the zealous Protestants to fix upon 
Catholicism in general the stain of regicide and dis- 
loyalty was a victor}^ for their own side which could 
not fail to win over waverers who were Englishmen 
first and Catholics afterwards. Pamphlets and 
broadsides, professing to give the whole story of the 
various murder plots, were numerous, and have 
formed the basis of our historical relations for three 

H 



ii4 TREASON AND PLOT 

centuries ; but they were written in nearly every 
instance with political or party object, and, from the 
nature of the case, were necessarily based upon an 
imperfect or partial statement of the facts. The 
opening of our own and other national archives in 
recent years has now enabled us to go to the 
original sources of information and attempt to dis- 
cover the truth for ourselves, free from the heat or 
bias that warped the minds of men who were too 
near the events to see them clearly. The net 
result of such inquiry tends to show that, whilst 
the methods and ethics of ruling statesmen were 
far less scrupulous than those of our own day, and 
the valuation of human life as balanced against the 
welfare of the State much lower, yet the moral 
rectitude of the mass of the people was quite as 
high as our own, and it would be as unjust then as 
now to attempt to fasten upon the members of a 
particular Church, or upon any large section of the 
community, the reproach of favouring regicide. Even 
the English refugees on the Continent must nearly 
all of them have been against the commission of 
such a crime, or the Queen would never have died 
a natural death. We not only have the apparently 
sincere voluntary declarations in innumerable letters 
from English exiles of their loyalty to the sovereign 
and State, but the fact remains that, notwithstand- 
ing all the loose talk of the swashbucklers, no 
serious attempt was ever really made to commit the 
murder. 



CHAPTEE V 

The conspiracy of Dr. Lopez — The confessions of Yorke and Williams 
— The alleged connection of the Spanish Ministers with the murder 
plots. 

In the preceding chapter I have dwelt upon a few 
typical cases of the so-called Catholic murder plots 
against the Queen, to show how their importance 
was exaggerated for political reasons, and how very- 
few of the English Catholics can have sympathised 
with them. I have, however, reserved for treat- 
ment in a separate chapter the two principal con- 
spiracies, the fame of which rang throughout 
England, and aroused a fervour of loyalty towards 
the person of the Queen, which surpassed any pre- 
vious manifestation of the people's love for her. 
This outburst was partly in consequence of the 
peculiar features of treachery with which one of the 
plots seemed to be surrounded, and the fact that 
both of them were ostensibly traced directly to the 
instigation of the King of Spain or his Ministers. 

We saw in the last chapter that the loose boast- 
ing of Captain Eustace, repeated by Annias, was 
accepted as a reason for associating Esteban de 
Ibarra, Philip's Secretary of War in Flanders, with 
the plot for the Queen's assassination ; but this 
evidence was really so slight as hardly to be worth 
consideration. It was otherwise with the famous 
conspiracy of Dr. Lopez, and the atrocious plot 



ii6 TREASON AND PLOT 

confessed by Edmund Yorke and Williams. The 
first of these two intrigues deserves special con- 
sideration here, because its apparent heinousness 
aroused English hatred of Spain to the highest 
pitch, and so greatly influenced subsequent events, 
and also because my own recent researches at Paris 
and in Lord Calthorpe's MSS. have provided me 
with new information which must be taken into 
account before a final historical verdict can be 
given, either as to the guilt of Lopez himself, or 
as to the direct complicity of Philip IL in a plot to 
murder his sister-in-law. The story is extremely 
involved, but I will endeavour to reduce it to as 
simple a form as is compatible with the statement 
of all the facts upon which a judgment should be 
based. Contrary to the course followed by other 
writers on the subject, I propose to set forth the 
facts as they were disclosed, instead of in the order 
in which they were supposed to have happened.^ 
Dr. Rodrigo or Ruy Lopez, though a professed 

^ The principal authorities upon the Lopez plot are as follows : — 
State Papers, Domestic, from vol. ccxxxviii. to cclviii.,"' abstracted in 
the Calendars for 1593-94 ; the Gawdy Papers, Hist. MSS. Commis- 
mission ; Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. ; the Bacon Papers in the Lambeth 
Palace Library, of which Birch's extracts are in B.M., Sloane MSS,, 
41 12, and are mostly published in his "Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth ;' 
Charles Yetsvvirt's " True Eeport of Sondry Horrible Conspiracies," 
London, 1594 (French version of same; also London, 1594); 
Francis Bacon's " True Eeport of the Detestable Treason ; " Bishop 
Goodman's " Court of James I. ; '' Sir William Waad's detailed ac- 
count of the case in Lord Calthorpe's Manuscript Papers (for allowing 
me access to which I desire to thank his Lordship) ; an excellent 
article called "The Conspiracy of Dr. Lopez" in the English Historical 
Review, for July 1894, by the Rev. Arthur Dimock ; and Mr. Sidney 
Lee's article on " Lopez " in the " Dictionary of National Biography." 
There is also a contemporary statement of the whole case drawn up by 
Coke, the Solicitor-General, in Harl. MSS., B.M., 871. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 117 

Protestant, was one of those Iberian Jews through 
whom the medical lore of the ancient Orient filtered 
to the Western world. The|'persecution of this race 
in the Peninsula had driven them forth with their 
learning and traditions to seek safety in other lands ; 
and in the sixteenth century no court in Europe 
lacked a physician of this sort, who was reported 
to possess secrets of science unattainable to the 
Gentile practitioners in their profession. Such 
men naturally attracted the dislike and jealousy of 
their medical rivals, both on account of their mys- 
terious skill and their outcast race. They were 
generally self-seeking intriguers, who often wormed 
themselves into the confidence of high personages, 
and added to their wealth and importance by making 
themselves useful as intermediaries in affairs of state, 
where their knowledge of tongues and their con- 
fidential position gave them an advantage over others. 
Lopez had lived in London since the beginning of 
Elizabeth's reign, first in Broad Street in the city of 
London, then in Wood Street, and finally in Mount- 
joy's Inn, Holborn. Gradually he became a leading 
physician, and obtained the patronage of Leicester, 
whose household doctor he was. Leicester was 
accused by his enemies, and notably by Father Per- 
sons, of a propensity for removing inconvenient 
friends or rivals by poison, and naturally his house- 
hold physician shared his evil repute in this respect. 
The English medical men of the time shrugged 
their shoulders and turned up their eyes when Lopez 
was mentioned, and it became an accepted fact that 
the Portuguese Jew had more skill in intrigue and 
self-advertisement than in medicine, and knew more 



ii8 TREASON AND PLOT 

about poisoning than healing. But with the patron- 
age of Leicester and Walsingham, both members 
of the Puritan party, Lopez continued to prosper 
greatly in spite of frowns and sneers. In 1586 
he was appointed principal physician to the Queen, 
he was house-physician of St. Bartholomew's Hos- 
pital, and was to all appearance a person of wealth, 
though he was really impecunious. In the pursuit 
of profit he was certainly indefatigable. He had a 
monopoly for a term of years of the importation of 
shumac and aniseed into England ; his son was 
being educated at Winchester College, Oxford, by 
means of the revenues of a parsonage granted to 
him by the Queen ; one of his wealthy patients 
gave him a house ; and when Don Antonio, the 
Portuguese Pretender, came to England to crave 
the assistance of Elizabeth, Dr. Lopez at once be- 
came his advocate at court, his interpreter, and his 
inseparable friend — doubtless for very handsome 
consideration, for the Pretender, at his first coming, 
had brought with him from Portugal some of the 
finest jewels in the world, and whilst they lasted 
he was a welcome guest both to Elizabeth and to 
Catharine de Medici. Lopez had acted for his 
patrons, Leicester and Walsingham, in presenting 
Antonio's cause to the Queen in the most glowing 
colours ; and, influenced by his representations, 
Elizabeth had been induced to consent to the 
joint-stock company invasion of Portugal by an 
English force in 1589, which ended in a dismal 
fiasco.^ Elizabeth was very angry with Antonio 

1 The history of this expedition is fully related in " The Year after 
the Armaria," by the present writer. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 119 

for the failure of his hopes, and Lopez was ex- 
tremely apologetic for his share in the transaction. 

Thenceforward the Pretender was under a cloud, 
the jewels were soon gone, and the crowd of 
Portuguese adherents who had surrounded him 
whilst his hopes lasted began to fall away from 
him. Many of them had already prepared a path 
for their political salvation by serving as spies in 
England for Philip, and as early as 1586 one of them 
had sent proposals to Mendoza in Paris, and to 
Philip himself, to have Don Antonio poisoned.-^ To 
these proposals Idiaquez, the King's secretary, re- 
plied to Mendoza that " the deed might be done 
without scruple as Don Antonio is a rebel, and has 
been condemned to death by law." The murderer 
was to have 25,000 or 30,000 ducats, and Idiaquez, 
by order of the King, urged that no time should 
be lost in performing the service.^ The proposed 
assassin, however, was a windbag, and the attempt 
came to nothing; but in the following year (1587) 
the same spy, Vega, mentioned a plan that he had 
for persuading Dr. Lopez to poison Don Antonio, by 
purging the latter with Indian acacia, instead of 
with his customary fortnightly purge. This was 
merely mentioned, together with a number of 
similar vague ideas proposed with the same object 
by Vega, and does not in any way commit Lopez 
yet. But shortly afterwards, Vega wrote that he 
had succeeded in gaining over Dr. Lopez, whom he 
had " converted to his Majesty's service with good 
promises, and he has already done wonders in trying 

1 MSS. Simancas and Paris, Spanish Calendar, vols, iii. and iv. 
2 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. p. 12. 



120 TREASON AND PLOT 

to get him, Antonio, turned out of here." Mendoza, 
in a marginal note to this letter, scornfully asks why 
Vega, " if he is so sure of Dr. Lopez, does not have 
Don Antonio put out of the way altogether." On a 
mere hint which Don Gerau de Spes gave him 
(Lopez), he offered to purge a Portuguese pilot who 
was busy about some expeditions from England to 
the Indies. He took the recipe to the apothecary 
himself, and on his way he let it fall out of his 
breeches pocket, in consequence of which he was 
kept for six months in the Tower. ** I {i.e. Mendoza) 
will say that this other business will be well paid for, 
as the doctor knows, and it may be settled without 
hesitation." ^ But Lopez would do nothing on 
Vega's word alone, and wanted a distinct pledge in 
writing from Philip or his Ministers. Distrust pre- 
vented this from being sent, and the matter for the 
time again fell through. 

After the wreck of the Armada, Lopez busied 
himself greatly in favour of the Spanish prisoners of 
the poorer sort from one of the captured galleons, 
and claimed to have rescued 300 of them from the 
gallows and secured their liberation. One of the 
most daring and effective of the Portuguese spies 
was Manuel de Andrada,^ who sent to Mendoza in 

^ Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. p, 78. I cannot find any confirmation 
of Mendoza's statement that Lopez was imprisoned, as he says, though 
it is no doubt true that he agreed to poison the Portuguese pilot, 
Bartolome Bayon, in 1571. 

2 Every writer on the subject with whose works I am acquainted 
lavishes upon this man vituperative epithets, which, so far as I can see, 
are absolutely unjustified, except that, like all the dramatis personce, he 
was a double spy. Motley calls him " the famous Portuguese poisoner/' 
which he certainly was not. Mr. Dimock says he " was a ruffian pure 
and simple." The papers I shall cite from Simancas and Paris will 
prove that at all events he told the truth. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 121 

Paris absolutely correct and full advice of English 
naval affairs, and of the movements of Don Antonio. 
He spoke French and Flemish, and was frequently 
sent by Don Antonio on missions abroad, but was 
already, in 1590, suspected — and with good reason 
— of playing false to his master. During his absence 
in France on Don Antonio's business, he had left as 
his substitute in England another spy, one Rodrigo 
Marques, and on Andrada's arrival in London from 
Dieppe at the beginning of 1590, he had met his 
substitute there, and had learnt of Don Antonio's 
intention to fly from England to seek the aid of the 
Dutch, the Huguenots, or even of the Turks, since 
Elizabeth was unwilling to help him further. 
Andrada was secretly instructed by the Pretender 
to freight a ship for this purpose to carry him to 
Dieppe, and treacherously stipulated with the 
Flemish skipper, for 10,000 crowns, to alter his 
course when he was out at sea and run the vessel 
into Dunkirk, where Antonio would be at the 
mercy of the Spaniards. This pretty arrangement 
was conveyed in a letter written by Andrada to 
Mendoza in Paris, but the letter was intercepted, and, 
although written with sensitive ink, was promptly 
deciphered by Phellips, and Andrada was clapped 
into jail. Marques flying into hiding until the hue 
and cry was over, and then escaping into France. 

By the strenuous intervention of Dr. Lopez, An- 
drada was released, instead of being hanged by Don 
Antonio ; and when he arrived in France, the spy 
had a strange story to tell the Spanish ambassador. 
He had, he said, made great efforts to win over Dr. 
Lopez, "who is a person of great influence with the 



122 TREASON AND PLOT 

Queen and Council." " When Andrada was about 
to leave England, the Doctor said that as he had 
saved Andradra's life — which he certainly did, for if 
he had not interceded for him nothing else could 
have rescued him — he would confide in him that he 
had already been approached by Mendoza for the 
purpose of putting Don Antonio out of the way ; ^ 
but he had refused, as he was distrustful. He had 
been the means, he said, of saving from the gallows 
over three hundred Spaniards from Don Pedro's ship, 
who had been sentenced to be hanged ; and yet, for 
all this, he had never received any favour whatever 
from his Majesty (Philip). He said that God had 
ordained my imprisonment, and made him the in- 
strument of my release, in order that he might be 
able implicitly to trust me ; and since I displayed 
so much zeal in the service of his Majesty, I might 
tell Don Bernardino (Mendoza) that if he, Dr. 
Lopez, received his Majesty's orders to negotiate 
an arrangement, this was the time. He was sure 
that the Queen would concede any terms that were 
demanded of her, as she was in great alarm. It 
was not necessary to write about this, but that I 
should go to Calais, and write to him from there to 
the effect that, bearing in mind the clemency the 
Queen had extended to me, I was discussing with 
Mendoza subjects which would redound greatly to 
the advantage of her country ; " and that if a pass- 

1 It is fair to observe that on a former occasion when Lopez said 
this to Vega, Mendoza said it was a lie ; but there was nothing impro- 
bable in it. 

2 Letters to a similar effect to this were written by Andrada to Lopez 
in 1 591 from Calais, See Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, for 
that year, where translations of them will be found. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 123 

port were sent to me, enabling me to go backwards 
and forwards freely, which passport Lopez promised 
should be sent at once, I could come secretly and 
stay in his house in London, where Secretary Wal- 
singham could come and speak with me. He, 
Lopez, had no doubt that the Queen would come 
to terms with his Majesty, and would force Don 
Antonio to do the same, on the conditions that his 
Majesty might think just. She would also cause 
the Netherlands to agree, and he, Lopez, on his part, 
would endeavour that everything should be done to 
his Majesty's satisfaction. No one was to know 
that he had discussed this matter with me. He 
would continue to let me know the decisions arrived 
at by the Queen's Council ; and when things were 
sufficiently advanced towards a conclusion to his 
Majesty's satisfaction, personages might be sent to 
make the formal contracts. He hopes that every- 
thing may thus be settled speedily and advantage- 
ously for his Majesty ; and he promises, if the 
matter be kept secret, that he will inform me of 
everything that happens of interest to his Majesty. 
If an arrangement be not arrived at, he promises 
that Don Antonio shall be sent away from England, 
or detained as his Majesty may desire, and if the 
present suggestion fell through he would continue 
to protect his Majesty's interests in England. In 
very truth no person can report so well as he can, 
in consequence of his great influence with the 
Queen and Council : but . . . energy and liberality 
are necessary." ^ 

It is evident that Walsingham was behind Lopez 

1 MSS. Palis Arcliives, Spanish. Calendar, vol. iv. 



124 TREASON AND PLOT 

in this suggestion, and having in view the party to 
which he belonged, we shall be safe in assuming 
that the suggestion of peace negotiations was only 
a screen behind which agents might go backwards 
and forwards to Spain, and obtain information of 
armaments, &c. But two parties can play at such a 
game as this ; and when Andrada, with Marques in 
his company, proceeded to Spain, apparently them- 
selves in all sincerity, Mendoza suggested to the 
King, and the latter approved of the suggestion, 
that Andrada shall be " sent backwards and for- 
wards to England under cover of the negotiation, 
so that he may be able to report what is going on 
there." ' 

This, however, was not the only message that 
Andrada took from England. A brother-in-law 
of Lopez (whose name is not mentioned, but who 
was one of several brothers, English Jews, perhaps 
originally from Portugal, named Jorge or Anes) had 
professed to be deeply offended with Don Antonio 
for having spoken ill of his father (Gonzalo Jorge ?), 
and promised, if a person were sent to him with an 
agreed token, he would "kill Don Antonio if his 
Majesty desired." He disapproved of the peaceful 
suggestion of his brother-in-law Lopez ; but, pend- 
ing the authority to kill the Pretender, he also would 
send information from England. Andrada protests 
that "he never, on his conscience, urged the person 
to do this ; yet, seeing that although the heretic 
Queen had been merciful to him, Don Antonio had 
tried by all means to have him killed, he, Andrada, 
in revenge for such cruelty, is now disposed to do 

1 ]\ISS. Paris Archives, Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 125 

everything against Don Antonio, even to have him 
killed. Nothing will be done, however, without his 
Majesty's orders." 

These were the missions that Andrada carried to 
Madrid, in part with the connivance of Walsingham, 
through Lopez ; and I have quoted thus fully from 
these documents, which are here used for the first 
time, because upon this negotiation was subsequently 
built the accusation against Lopez of participating in 
the plot to murder the Queen, and an infinity of 
totally unsupported scandal was grouped around it. 
Andrada and Marques, as usual with persons of their 
rank, did not negotiate in Spain with the King him- 
self, though they said they were admitted to the 
presence of Philip, who was seriously ill at the 
Escorial, to kiss his hand, as he sat in his great 
black velvet wheel chair. The peace suggestions of 
Dr. Lopez were discussed with Don Cristobal de 
Moura, Philip's favourite Secretary of State, and, 
although we know that the negotiation was as 
hollow on one side as the other, Andrada was sent 
back to England, with full instructions to proceed in 
the manner proposed by Mendoza. Moura's draft 
instructions on the matter are plain and precise. It 
is probable that Andrada himself was to think that 
the Spaniards were sincere, although, if such was 
the intention, he was really not deceived, and on his 
arrival in England at once divulged the truth in 
this respect to Lord Burghley. The draft for his 
instructions ^ clearly demonstrate that his negotia- 
tions in Spain were confined to the matters he had 
already stated in writing to Mendoza, namely, the 

^ See Appendix, p. 162. 



126 TREASON AND PLOT 

peace negotiations, the confinement in or expulsion 
from England of Don Antonio by the influence of 
Lopez, the murder of Don Antonio by Lopez's brother- 
in-law, unknown to the doctor, and the gaining of in- 
formation in England. All these offers were accepted 
by Philip's Minister Moura, though, as will be seen, 
not the faintest indication is given in these most secret 
papers of any hint of a plot to kill Elizabeth, and 
certainly none was included in this negotiation. Of 
course, Moura must have known perfectly well that 
such an envoy as Andrada would have had no chance 
of negotiating a peace with the Queen, and the hint 
that "satisfaction" must be given by England, with- 
out, apparently, any concession on the part of Spain, 
would of itself have rendered the negotiations abor- 
tive. The whole matter, indeed, was insincere on 
both sides, with the object of gaining information. 
When Andrada and Marques were about to set out 
for England, Moura only provided the insignificant 
sum of 300 reals ( = £6) for their voyage, and a pro- 
mise of a pension of 30 reals (per month ?) ^ at some 
future time. So empty, indeed, was Philip's treasury 
that Andrada's demand for a jewel for Dr. Lopez's 
" daughter," and the payments for the doctor's 
brother-in-law and the spy who furnished Andrada 
with information, had to be met by taking some of 
the "old jewels from his Majesty's casket"^ in lieu 
of sending money. The " old jewel" sent to Lopez's 
daughter was a fine diamond and ruby ring, worth 
;^ioo, and it was made, three years afterwards, one 
of the principal pieces de conviction against the 
doctor. It was said to have been sent direct 

^ See Appendix, p, 162. ^ Jbid. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 127 

from Philip to Lopez as a pledge for the murder 
of Elizabeth, and was asserted to have been ac- 
companied by an " embrace " from the King 
himself. Andrada doubtless boasted and made 
the most of his mission ; but there is no indication 
in the Spanish documents that any such message 
was sent, or even that he saw Philip at all. To any 
one who knows, as I do, the relations that existed 
between Philip and the rest of mankind, the mere 
idea of an " embrace " being sent by the King him- 
self through such a messenger as Andrada to such a 
person as Dr. Lopez is ridiculous. The ahrazo, at 
all events, may be dismissed as a fable invented long 
afterwards. The ring itself may have been intended 
for the Queen, as Lopez's daughters were young girls, 
and it is not likely that a ring would be sent to 
either of them. In any case, Lopez offered the ring 
to the Queen, though it is not clear whether he told 
her from whom it came, and she graciously refused 
it.^ Of Marques we hear no more, but Andrada, 
after suffering shipwreck and many adventures, 
arrived at Havre in the summer of 1591, and begged 
the English Government to give him a passport to 
come to England. Walsingham, however, had died 
in the meanwhile, and Lord Burghley had received 
from his spies full information of Andrada's sus- 
picious visit to Spain. Besides, his former betrayal 
of Don Antonio had marked him as a dangerous man, 
and when, eventually, after detention as a suspicious 
character by the Huguenot governor of Dieppe, he 

^ The fact of her having refused the ring is presumptive evidence of 
Lopez having said it came from Philip. As a rule, she received such 
presents from her courtiers with alacrity. 



128 TREASON AND PLOT 

was brought to Rye, it was as a prisoner of the Eng- 
lish. Lord Burghley, who evidently knew nothing 
of Walsingham's complicity in the matter, attached 
much importance to Andrada's coming. The air, as 
we have seen, was full of the talk of the Spanish 
plots, and here was a man known to be a traitor to 
his own King and in the pay of Spain, coming 
straight from Philip and was seeking entrance to 
the English court. When Andrada was brought to 
Rye (August 2, 1591 O.S.), he wrote to Burghley 
begging that he may be examined by the Lord 
Treasurer himself or by some person of great 
trust, as his mission was important ; ^ and to the 
King, Don Antonio, he also sent a letter full of 
contrition for past errors, saying that he always 
wished to serve him, and had determined, in unison 
with Marques, upon a course which would complete 
successfully the matter he had in hand. He trusts, 
he says, that Antonio's Minister, Botello, may be 
present when he speaks to the Lord Treasurer 
on matters concerning the Queen and Philip IL 
Burghley's answer to the spy's letter was to send 
Mr. Mills to Rye with Botello and Dr. Lopez to 
examine Andrada and his papers, " at first civilly, 
and then threateningly, so that in fear of his life he 
may be compelled to disclose the truth." On the 
13th August, Andrada related to Mr. Mills quite 
truly everything which I have already told from 
the documents themselves. From that time to this 
English historians have characterised this statement 
of his as a pack of lies,^ and the man himself as a 

1 State Papers, Domestic, 

2 Mr. Dimock, for instance, dismissed it as " of course, all sheer false- 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 129 

perjured braggart ; but I have checked every state- 
ment and cannot find one discrepancy. He had been 
sent on this peace negotiation, he said, by Philip, 
whilst the latter prepared an expedition against 
England or Ireland : he told the whole story of 
his former negotiation with Mendoza, and assured 
Burghley that Walsingham was a party to the arrange- 
ment, though he does not seem to have appealed 
to Lopez for confirmation, as he might have done ; 
he disclosed the ofi*er of the Anglo-Portuguese 
brother-in-law of Lopez — though he did not give his 
name — to kill Don Antonio, and added that, on the 
failure of a certain Spanish emissary from Philip to get 
through France to kill the Pretender, the Spanish 
Ministers had authorised him, Andrada, to offer Dr, 
Lopez himself a large sum to commit the crime. 

Lord Burghley was indignantly incredulous of the 
whole story, and sent to Andrada a scornful paper of 
queries.^ How could Philip think, he asked, that 
Andrada could be a fit envoy to England, seeing the 
way in which he had betrayed Antonio before, and 
how could he think that the Queen would receive 
such a man? The suggestion (of Moura) that 
Andrada should be sent to Parma to make terms, 
considering how the Prince had tricked the Queen 
in the former peace negotiations, was ridiculous. 
What was the use of the disclosure of the names 
of those who had been spies in England, or of his, 
Andrada's, proposal for England to checkmate Philip 
by sending a force to Portugal in September in the 

hood." As a matter of fact it is all confirmed by the letters of Mendoza 
and Moura. 

^ In State Papers, Domestic, of the date. 

I 



I30 TREASON AND PLOT 

interests of Don Antonio 1 Andrada made good and 
true answers to all these objections. He gave a 
wonderfully correct list of the Spanish spies still in 
England, letters from all of whom I have seen. He 
cited Mendoza's strong letter of recommendation of 
him to the King as a reason for the latter's trust in 
him, and protested warmly that his ultimate object was 
neither ambition nor greed, but to save Portugal from 
Spanish tyranny and avenge the death of his kins- 
folk who had been sacrificed to Philip's cruelty. The 
man was obviously a traitor, and Burghley would not 
believe his protestations, or for some time accept his 
offers of service as a spy. He was consigned to the 
keeping of Dr. Lopez, in whose house he lived for 
the next year or so, and in June 1593 we fi^nd him 
living at Calais, whence he had gone from Zeeland, 
and although, as he says, poorly recompensed, sending 
to Lord Burghley such news as he could gather in 
the interests of England.^ He was, however, dis- 
contented with his pay, and in August wrote to the 
Lord Treasurer a letter very difi'erent in tone to those 
he usually sent, and evidently conveying a covert 
intimation that unless money was sent to him he 
would take his services elsewhere. "As the Queen 
has nothing for him to do, and Don Antonio is not 
in a position to support him, he is determined to go 
where his fortune shall guide him." Naturally his 
fortune guided him to the Spanish territory of 
Brussels, and, fortunately for himself, Manuel An- 
drada trod English soil no more, although upon the 

1 His letters to Lord Burghley are in the Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. 
When he had set out for Flanders, Burghley had given him a sum equal 
to ;^io, and he does not seem to have received more. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 131 

facts I have here set down was reared the edifice whose 
fall crushed Dr. Lopez and sent all England into a 
fresh frenzy of hate and rage against the Spaniards. 

Lopez in the meanwhile lived honoured and re- 
spected at court, a man of supposed wealth and 
influence ; but he was already marked down for 
ruin. As we have seen, he had owed his advance- 
ment to Leicester, Walsingham, and Essex, the 
heads of the party determined upon open war with 
Spain, and lo ! the discovery of this peace negotiation 
of Andrada exhibited him as an anxious intermediary 
in an arrangement with Spain. Walsingham was 
dead, and could not say that he never meant the 
negotiations to be sincere ; they were evidently in- 
tended to be so by Lopez, and this was a desertion 
of those to whom he owed everything.^ Essex was 
hotheaded and vindictive enough himself, but he 
had now two men practically living upon his bounty 
to whom peace with Spain was utter ruin and whose 
hatred for Philip was a mania. 

Don Antonio, the evicted king, whose crown 
Philip had wrested from his brows ; and Antonio 
Perez, the sleepless foe who had derided, deceived, 
and defied the sovereign who looked upon himself 
as semi-divine ; who had raised revolt against and 

1 Bishop Goodman, in his " Court of James I.," gives us another 
reason for Essex's anger with Lopez. It appears that Don Antonio 
and Antonio Perez were carousing with Dr. Lopez at Eton, where they 
were all lodged whilst the court was at Windsor, and in the confidence 
bred of the circumstances the Doctor told his boon companions some 
very discreditable secret respecting the Earl's maladies. This breach 
of professional etiquette was immediately conveyed to Essex by the 
two Antonios, and "here the Earl was so much incensed that he 
resolved to be revenged on him, and now he began to possess the 
Queen that Lopez was a very villain and had poisoned others." 



132 TREASON AND PLOT 

had humiliated the proudest king on earth before 
his own people. To these men, both of whose lives 
Philip sought, Lopez, the reputed poisoner, was 
dreaded and hateful in a double sense. He had 
been in close communication with their enemy, 
first, to bring about peace between England and 
Spain, and secondly, to assassinate by his vile art 
those whom Philip wished out of the way. 

What could save Lopez from such a combination 
as this, even if he had been innocent, much less if 
any guilt could be found beneath all this mysterious 
intriguing ? 

Either from the spying of Essex's creatures or 
otherwise, it was conveyed to the Queen by the 
Earl in the middle of October 1595 that a certain 
Portuguese gentleman of rank, who had been 
ruined by his adherence to the cause of Don Antonio, 
and was then living in Lopez's house in Holborn, 
being discontented with his master, had determined 
to compass the death of Don Antonio and offer his 
services to the King of Spain.^ The Queen at once 
gave Essex an order for the apprehension of this 
man, Esteban Ferreira da Gama, and the exami- 
nation of his papers.^ This was the first step, and 
Essex lost no time in making the arrest, and 
handing his prisoner over to his own offended 
sovereign, Don Antonio, who was then lodging at 

1 Carleton (" Thankful Remembrancer ") says that " it was conveyed 
to the Queen that it was Ferreira's intention to go to the King of 
Spain accompanied by Don Manoel, the eldest son of Don Antonio, 
and divers other Portuguese, the purpose being for them all to submit 
to Philip." Such a submission was, as we shall see by the correspond- 
ence, at all events one of the objects of the negotiations. 

^ All these men had aliases, some of them several, but I have 
throughout retained their true names to avoid unnecessary obscurity. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 133 

Eton College/ Orders were also sent to Rye, 
Sandwich, and Dover for all correspondence arriving 
at those ports directed to Portuguese to be detained 
and read. There was no definite charge against 
Ferreira; he was merely suspected of an intention 
to betray his master, Don Antonio ; but a fortnight 
after his arrest a man named Gomez d'Avila, 
described as a " mean, base fellow," living when 
at home hard by Lopez's house in Holborn, was 
taken at one of the ports as he came from Flanders. 
Upon him was found a letter addressed to one 
Ferrandis, and signed Francisco de Torres. The 
terms in the letter were commercial, but neither the 
writer nor the person to whom it was addressed was 
known. It ran thus: "The bearer will inform 
your Worship in what price your pearls are held. 
I will advise your Worship presently of the utter- 
most penny that will be given for them, and crave 
what order you will have set down for the convey- 
ance of the money, and wherein you would have it 
employed. Also this bearer shall tell you in what 
resolution we rested about a little musk and amber, 
the which I determined to buy. But before I 
resolve myself I will be advised of the price 
thereof. And if it shall please your Worship to 
be my partner, I am persuaded we shall make good 
profit."^ This was very mysterious, and no explana- 
tion could be got from Gomez d'Avila. But he 
was put in prison as a precautionary measure whilst 
further inquiries were being made, his arrival and 

* Sir William Waad's account in Lord Calthorpe's MSS., vol. xxxiii. 
fol. 148. 

2 Yetswirt's " True Report," &c. 



134 TREASON AND PLOT 

arrest being kept secret. About the same time a 
large packet of letters was seized on another Por- 
tuguese at Dover, addressed to a certain Manuel 
Luis at Brussels, and in this packet was found a 
letter written by Ferreira to the Spanish Secretary 
Ibarra, enclosing another from Dr. Lopez to Perreira, 
written before the arrest of the latter, giving him 
news of what was passing at court, where Lopez 
was staying, Ferreira being at the time in Dr. 
Lopez's house in London. This was confirmation 
of the suspicions against Ferreira, but nothing 
else. 

In the meanwhile Lopez was using all the influ- 
ence he possessed with the Queen to secure the 
release of Ferreira. He told her how ungrateful 
Don Antonio was, not only to this good servant of 
his, who had sacrificed everything for him, but also 
to her. He (Antonio) was even now, he assured 
her, quite truly, again planning to go to France, and 
to appeal for help to other princes, as he had done 
before. There was, Lopez told the Queen, no 
person more likely to be useful than Ferreira "to 
work a peace between the two kingdoms, in which 
he (Lopez) had already laid a good foundation."^ 
And if her Majesty did not desire this course, what 
a good thing it would be " to cosin the King of 
Spain by a speech uttered by himself ! "^ The Queen 
sharply reproved the Doctor for this. She did not 
relish such liberties being taken with a crowned 
head, even that of her enemy. It was noticed, too, 
by courtiers that the Jew grew more and more 

1 Sir William Waad's account in Tiord Calthorpe's MSS. 
2 Ibid. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 135 

haggard and anxious, for Essex had many friends 
whose watchful eyes were upon him. 

In the meantime the "base fellow," Gomez d'Avila, 
was being daily pressed in Essex's house for some ex- 
planation of the mysterious musk and amber missive 
he had brought. During the time he was waiting 
in the chamber for examination on one occasion, he 
begged "an honest gentleman who happened to be 
there, and who spoke the Spanish tongue, to tell 
Dr. Lopez that he was captured," ^ This was a clue 
that was not lost upon Essex, to whom it was con- 
veyed, for hitherto there had been no mention of 
any connection between Gomez d'Avila and the 
Doctor, " The honest gentleman " shortly after- 
wards met Lopez in the Base Court at Windsor, and 
gave him the message ; whereupon it was noticed 
that Lopez " changed countenance." ^ When Gomez 
d'Avila saw the rack he gave further extension to 
the story. He had been sent, he said, by Ferreira 
two months previously to Brussels to one Manuel 
Luis — whose real name was Tinoco — and to Secre- 
tary Ibarra, and had there awaited for weeks the 
reply which he had brought to England, the letter 
signed Torres being really written by Manuel Luis 
(Tinoco). This at once marked out Ferreira as the 
man to whom this mysterious musk and amber letter 
had really been written. 

Shortly before this Ferreira had taken a most 
unfortunate step. He was, be it recollected, only 
a prisoner of Don Antonio at Eton, and was under 
the charge of a young Portuguese servant named 

1 Sir William Waad's account in Lord Oalthorpe's MSS. 
2 Ihid.. 



136 TREASON AND PLOT 

Pedro. In order to test this lad, Ferreira asked him 
to beg another Portuguese, one Caldeira, who was 
a member of the household of the French Ambas- 
sador, also living at Eton College, to come and 
speak to him at his grated window. Caldeira re- 
plied that he dared not ; but as the reply proved 
that Pedro had given the message, Ferreira then 
sent him to Caldeira with a little note, praying him 
to see Dr. Lopez, and to warn him, for God's sake, 
to prevent the coming over of Gomez d'Avila from 
Brussels, " for if he should be taken, the Doctor would 
be undone without remedy." ^ The message was con- 
veyed to Lopez, who had not yet learnt of Gomez's 
arrest, and he then made his fatal mistake. Caldeira 
had been arrested, and was imprisoned at Ditton 
Park, for the lad Pedro had divulged to Don Antonio 
Ferreira's communication with him and Lopez. So 
the latter had to find another means of sending a 
reassuring note to Ferreira. He wrote on a little 
ticket, folded in a handkerchief sent from the 
laundry, that he had already taken steps to stop 
Gomez d'Avila from coming. " He had," he said, 
" sent twice or thrice to Flanders with that object, 
and would spare no expense, if it cost him ;^300." ^ 
This little note in the handkerchief was, of course, 
intercepted (by the confessor in the service of Don 
Antonio), and when Ferreira was confronted with 
the information contained in it, thinking that Lopez 
had betrayed him, he hastened to make a declaration 

^ The little note also contained these words : " All the diligence 
that hath been used doth not condemn Dr. Lopez as yet any whit, for 
I have bravely diverted anybody from that." This is noted by Waad 
as being " very suspicious " (Lord Calthorpe's MSS. 33). 

2 Ibid. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 137 

incriminating the Doctor. Lopez, he said, was a 
principal party in the negotiations for the submis- 
sion of Don xintonio's son and heir to the King of 
Spain. The Doctor, he repeated, had artfully secured 
Andrada's release from prison three years before, in 
order that he might go to Mendoza and deal for the 
poisoning of Don Antonio ; and he (Lopez) had 
been in the interests of Spain for years. Much of 
this was old news, at least to the Cecils, who had 
squeezed Andrada at Rye two years before, but it 
gave Essex some further clues. Gomez d'Avila was 
plied with leading questions till he confessed that 
when he was in Brussels he learnt that a great sum 
of money was to be sent to England, some 40,000 
or 50,000 crowns, he thought. It was to be ad- 
dressed to Ferreira, and was for the purpose of 
buying the adhesion of Don Antonio's eldest son 
and his followers to the Spanish side. Ferreira 
being confronted with this statement, admitted its 
truth, and confessed that the " musk and amber " 
letter was really intended for him, and referred to 
this matter. He went further, and proposed that 
the plot should be allowed ostensibly to proceed* 
and the sum, when it came, handed over to Don 
Antonio himself, to be used against Spain. Don 
Antonio was in dire poverty, and the money would 
have been welcome enough, but Essex and Perez 
persuaded him that there was some deep mystery 
behind all this, which, when discovered, would do 
more for his cause and against Philip than could be 
done by the treasure. 

The watch upon the English ports was not 
slackened, and in December it met with its reward. 



138 TREASON AND PLOT 

The Portuguese called Tinoco, otherwise Manuel 
Luis, came to JefFerey, the English Consul at Calais, 
asking for a passport and safe-conduct to go to 
England. He had been, he said, an adherent of 
Don Antonio ; he had feigned attachment to the 
Spaniards, and had lived in Brussels in order to 
obtain the release of his wife and children in Portu- 
gal. He was, however, disgusted with his prince, 
Antonio, and owed gratitude and allegiance alone to 
the English Queen, who had secured his liberation 
from captivity in Barbary. Plis object in going to 
England was to reveal to the Queen and the Lord 
Treasurer secrets hurtful to England which he had 
learnt in Brussels. Jefferey, at his request, for- 
warded two memorials to this effect to Elizabeth 
and Burghley, and in due time a " prudently 
drafted " safe-conduct was sent by Sir William 
Waad, allowing the Portuguese to enter England 
without molestation, but reserved to the discretion 
of the Government whether he should be allowed to 
depart again. Tinoco, taking his safe-conduct for a 
full protection, sailed for England, in company with 
one of the Consul's servants, who took care not to 
let him out of his sight until he handed him to the 
captain of Dover Castle. Thence he was taken to 
court with all secrecy, expecting to be granted an 
interview with Lord Burghley. But, to his dismay, 
he was seized, searched, and placed safe under lock 
and key (14th January 1594). On him were found 
two letters, which were susceptible of sinister inter- 
pretation, and bills of exchange for a large sum of 
money. One of the letters was dated Brussels, 
A December 1593, signed by Count de Fuentes, 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 139 

the Spanish governor of Flanders, and addressed 
to Ferreh'a, who had been languishing in Don 
Antonio's prison for two months previously. The 
letter bespeaks credence for the bearer, Tinoco, 
and requests Ferreira, if possible, to go to Portugal, 
and thence to Spain, for the purpose of conferring 
privately with Don Cristobal de Moura, the Secre- 
tary of State, following his directions for the service 
of his Majesty. " If the shadows he speaks of," the 
letter continues, " have been the occasion of not 
entreating the commission, and if he would be 
informed of what has been offered, he may do it; 
the chief matter is the service of the king. He is 
to consider well, before he takes the voyage in hand, 
whether he can give any better order therein, but 
the whole is referred to him, Ferreira. ... It is 
important that he goes thither with the commission, 
for the projfit that may be reaped thereby. ... As 
to the young gentleman, it does not seem convenient 
to move anything till they see his decision." ^ 
Ibarra's letter was similarly enigmatical. It refers 
Ferreira to Tinoco, who knows their decision in the 
affair, which concurs with his, Ferreira' s, own. 
" He is persuaded that Ferreira will do his en- 
deavours, and he may be assured himself to obtain 
all that is to be expected of one (i.e. Philip) who can 
do so much, and is so willing to recompense that 
which is done in his service, and which is so much 
for the benefit of the world." 

The wretched Tinoco was then submitted to the 
searching examination of Essex, Waad, and others. 
What did these strange letters mean ? he was asked, 

^ State Papers, Domestic, ccxlvi. 



I40 TREASON AND PLOT 

since Count Fuentes said that he, Tinoco, knew 
all about it. Tinoco told a tale to explain why 
he had come to England. The new Viceroy of 
Flanders, the Archduke Ernest, was going to invade 
England, and an attack was to be made upon the 
Isle of Wight : a Gallego priest and a Jesuit were 
to come across from Dieppe to kill the Queen with 
a " device of lire," and much more vague stuff of the 
same sort, was all that at tirst could be got from 
him — evidently the loose talk of the English re- 
fugees in Brussels.^ When he was pressed closely 
as to his object in going to Brussels at all from 
England, he prevaricated, and was tripped up again 
and again. But at last leading questions drew 
from him the avowal that he had been sent over 
to England to see Ferreira, and with him secretly 
endeavour to win Dr. Lopez to do " a service " to 
King Philip, presumably against Don Antonio, as 
Tinoco confessed that he had deserted the Pre- 
tender and despaired of his cause. But this avowal 
did not explain Fuentes and Ibarra's letters to 
Ferreira, and it was evident that something more 
was behind. Tinoco himself grew alarmed at the 
snare into which he had run, and wrote the next 
day to Cecil protesting his innocence and praying 
to be sent back to Flanders. He was, he says, 
" confused and encumbered by the cunning questions 
of the Earl of Essex," and had small knowledge of 
the language, French, in which he was examined. 
He came voluntarily in all sincerity to do the Queen 
a service, but has not been treated as he expected. 

1 State Papers, Domestic, ccxlvi. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 141 

He gives his word as a gentleman to serve her 
Majesty truly, and to send all information possible 
if he is allowed to go back to Brussels. His letters 
from Fuentes and Ibarra had, he asserted, no 
reference to Don Antonio and his affairs ; and he 
advises Cecil to allow Ferreira himself to go to 
Spain, as desired in the letters, so that he may learn 
the designs of Philip against England. This was 
written on the i6th January, and its immediate 
effect was to render Tinoco's prison the closer. For 
the "cunning questions" of the Earl of Essex had 
drawn from him the avowal that the main object 
of his voyage and of Ferreira's curious correspond- 
ence was to prevail upon Dr. Lopez to do " a service " 
to the King of Spain that had no relation with 
Don Antonio. Gomez d'Avila had confessed that 
a large sum of money was to be sent to England 
for something ; that he had waited two months in 
Brussels for a definite reply to some proposal sent 
by Ferreira — an inmate of Lopez's house — who had 
in his little note to the Doctor besought him to 
prevent a reply coming from Brussels or he, Lopez, 
would be utterly ruined, and had assured the Doctor 
that he, Ferreira, had not incriminated him, Lopez. 
The Doctor, moreover, in his little "ticket" in the 
handkerchief addressed in reply to Ferreira, had 
said that he would spend .2^300 rather than the 
answer from Brussels came over. This seemed to 
prove conclusively that the Doctor was really the 
principal in the business, whatever it was, and 
Tinoco said it did not concern Don Antonio. On 
the ist January 1594 the blow of Essex fell upon 
his enemy. Dr. Lopez, the Queen's principal 



142 TREASON AND PLOT 

physician, a court favourite and a friend of the 
great Lord Treasurer, found himself a prisoner. 
Nothing whatever of an incriminating character 
was found in his house ; and when he was taken 
before the Lord Treasurer, his son, Sir Robert Cecil, 
and the Earl of Essex, at Burghley House in the 
Strand for examination, his answers seemed so satis- 
factory that the Cecils, at all events, were convinced 
that he had no part in any sinister designs. Burghley 
knew, of course, that he was in communication with 
Spanish agents, for he had become one of his own 
principal spy-masters. The Cecils also knew from 
their examination of Andrada all aboiit the peace 
negotiations of two years before, and were per- 
suaded that the new matter was a prolongation of 
the same intrigue, for the purpose of " cosining " 
the King of Spain and gaining knowledge of his 
intention. So, as soon as Sir Robert Cecil could 
get away from the examination of Lopez, he rode 
in haste to the Queen at Hampton Court, and told 
her how Essex had arrested her body-physician, 
and that on examination the Doctor had proved his 
innocence of offence. Elizabeth was in a fury. She 
had been squabbling with Essex ever since Christ- 
mas, and this was another grievance against him. 
When he appeai'ed at court she railed at him 
vigorously. How dared he, " a rash temerarious 
youth," to bring these grave accusations of high 
treason, on: of sheer malice, against a faithful ser- 
vant of hers ? She knew that Lopez was innocent, 
and it touched her honour now to see that justice 
was done. Cecil, the prim, sly, little hunchback, 
whom he hated, stood by whilst the haughty 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 143 

favourite was thus rebuked ; and when Essex flung 
out of the chamber, with flaming face and violent 
gesture, to sulk for the next two days, it touched 
his honour thenceforward to bring the Jew Lopez 
to the gallows, guilty or innocent. 

Not a word up to this point had been said about 
poisoning the Queen, but in the excited state of 
public feeling against Spain, already described, a 
mere hint of such a plan attributed to Lopez was 
suflicient to turn every one against him. The hint 
was not long coming, and it came from the quarter 
where it might have been expected. Standen, one 
of Essex's Catholic spies, went to Hampton Court on 
the 24th January, and wrote to Bacon on the 30th 
an account of Lopez's first examination in London 
on the 2 1 st, and the Queen's rage with Essex, He 
then says that " Lopez had been detected of a design 
to poison the Queen." ^ The following day Faunt, 
another of Essex's hangers-on, wrote from London 
to Bacon, saying that " it was most true that Dr. 
Lopez was most deeply touched in the particular 
working of the Queen's destruction, and was dis- 
covered to have been the King of Spain's pensioner 
for seven years past. . . . The Queen had forbidden 
all access to her, except only of four persons, besides 
councillors and ladies." ^ The day before this was 
written Lopez was taken to the Tower, and Essex 
himself wrote to his spy-master, Antony Bacon : " In 
haste this morning. — I have discovered a most dan- 
gerous and desperate treason. The point of conspiracy 
was her Majesty's death. The executioner should 
have been Dr. Lopez ; the manner poison. This I 

1 Birch. 2 Ibid: 



144 TREASON AND PLOT 

have so followed as I will make it appear as clear as 
noonday." ^ 

In the meanwhile, the separate examination of 
all the prisoners continued. Tinoco was told that 
Ferreira, on a threat of torture, had charged him 
with high treason ; and Tinoco, in a panic, we know 
not how pressed or led, but determined to save his 
own neck by the earliest and fullest declarations, 
opened the flood-gates of revelation, and surpassed 
himself in the satisfaction he gave to Essex. On the 
nth February, Faunt wrote to Bacon some news he 
had heard secretly from Sir W. Waad about the 
Lopez case, which he now mixed up vaguely with 
the Collen, Annias, and Polwhele conspiracies, re- 
ferred to in the preceding chapter. Then he goes 
on to say : " The inquiry is still very strict, and Dr. 
Lopez used great arts to elude it, and swore and 
forswore himself for that purpose.^ However, he 
has already confessed that many letters had been 
sent to him from the King of Spain's Ministers with 
large offers, but that he had always forborne to make 
answer, and entered not into promise. Yet one 
letter was found, in which he offered all his service 
to the King, saying that he only stayed in England 
to do him some acceptable service, which, being 
done, he would think himself happy to retire and die 
in his Majesty's dominions." Lopez, he said, asserted 

1 Birch, vol. i. p. 152. It is not plain whence came the original hint 
about Lopez killing the Queen, but it seems probable that it arose out 
of an important exclamation which Ferreira afterwards confessed he 
had made to his guard, the young Portuguese called Pedro, to the effect 
that he had no doubt that Lopez would poison either the Queen or Don 
Antonio if he was paid Ksufficiently for it. 

^ Sir William Waad, in his account in the Calthorpe MSS., speaks of 
" Lopez's customary awful oaths." 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 145 

that all this was in pursuance of a plan he had 
arranged with Walsingham to gain over as a spy 
one of the assistants of Idiaquez, the Spanish Secre- 
tary of State. "But that shift," continued Faunt, 
" will not serve. This will prove the most resolute 
attempt, and most deeply advised, of the court of 
Spain, if Lopez be well sifted, who is a most vile 
person, and void of all shame and common humanity. 
Thus much in great secret. " ^ All this, be it recol- 
lected, was from the various creatures of Essex. 
The letter to which he refers from Lopez, offering 
his services to Spain, is not now forthcoming, and 
Mr. Faunt's hearsay assertion of its existence is not 
conclusive ; but there is no doubt that such letters 
had been written by Ferreira at Lopez's dictation." 
This, however, is no proof that such offers as they 
contained related to the murder of the Queen. The 
first presumption, indeed, is to the contrary, as the 
unquestionable negotiations laid bare in the papers 

1 Birch. 

" Ferreira confessed on the i8th February that ten months pre- 
viously he had received from Lopez two letters to be delivered to Don 
Christobal de Moura. These letters were written by Ferreira himself, 
at the dictation of Lopez, and professed the latter's willingness to do all 
that the King of Spain desired, though, said Ferreira, the wording was 
purposely obscure. In answer, evidently, to a leading question, Ferreira 
confessed at the same time that, in his opinion, " the Doctor would have 
poisoned the Queen if required." This is an instance of the way in 
which the evidence was built up. From these extorted admissions to 
the confident statement that Lopez had written to the Spaniards offer- 
ing to kill the Queen was but a step. In the same confession Ferreira 
said that Andrada had told him, shortly before he left England in 1593, 
that if the King of Spain wished, Dr. Lopez would poison either the 
Queen or Don Antonio. This speech Ferreira said he had afterwards 
repeated to Lopez himself, who replied, "As for the King (Don 
Antonio), he shall die with the first sickness that shall happen to him, 
but for the Queen we have no answer as yet from the other side." See 
Ferreira's confession, State Papers, Domestic, and in Yetswirt's book. 

K 



146 TREASON AND PLOT 

from the Paris archives I have quoted in an appendix 
prove that the communications between Lopez and 
the Spaniards disclosed therein refer to the simulated 
peace overtures, and also, probably, to the removal of 
Don Antonio by poison. 

Essex, Waad, and Robert Cecil (for the latter 
was as anxious now as the Earl himself to sift the 
matter ; it was the Cecil method never to champion 
an unpopular cause) followed up ceaselessly the 
clues thus gained, with the object of " making it 
appear clear as noonday " against Lopez. Tinoco's 
admissions were used as levers for still further 
opening the lips of Ferreira ; and the two prisoners 
were so cleverly handled with fears of torture, and 
by a desire to ingratiate themselves with their exa- 
miners, that the story soon looked circumstantial 
enough to ensure the hanging of Lopez. When the 
evidence, such as it was, was pieced together, it 
appeared from the declarations that the reference 
to " peace " and " service " really meant the murder 
of the Queen by Lopez.^ The ruby ring and the 
mythical " embrace " brought by Andrada to the 
Doctor were said to be an encouragement direct 
from Philip to the commission of the crime. The 
King, however, distrusting such a man as An- 
drada in so delicate a mission, had instructed 

1 Tinoco confessed on 26tli February : " The letters I wrote to Fer- 
reira by Gomez d'Avila concerning the point which speaketh of 
pearls, and the price of them, was to give him to understand that the 
news which he had sent that Dr. Lopez would kill the Queen were 
very greatly accepted, and much esteemed of Count de Fuentes and 
Secretary Ibarra. And touching the point concerning musk and 
amber, the Count de Fuentes did tell me that he did look for a reso- 
lution of the King of great importance ; and when it came there should 
be a great matter " (Yetswirt). 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 147 

Count Fuentes to employ Ferreira instead of him. 
Andrada himself, it was asserted, had written to 
Count Fuentes three letters, urging that the money 
for the service {i.e. the murder of the Queen) should 
be paid at once. It was not in accordance with the 
Spanish principle to pay beforehand — if at all — 
and, according to the confessions, the matter hung 
fire until Ferreira was sent by Lopez to Flanders 
with the two letters already referred to again offer- 
ing his service in obscure terms. Ferreira stated 
that Fuentes and Ibarra instructed him to obtain a 
more binding pledge from the Doctor, which, how- 
ever, he was unable to do. Tinoco was then sent 
by Ferreira from London to Brussels and Antwerp, 
where Andrada was then staying. At Fuentes' 
instance Tinoco persuaded Andrada to stand aside, 
whilst Ferreira acted as principal intermediary ; ^ 
and Tinoco then went back to England for one day 
only — according to his own statement — carrying 
grand promises and another embrace from Fuentes 

1 Tinoco confessed on the 22nd February that Fuentes had sum- 
moned him to his house at Brussels and asked his opinion about 
Andrada. Tinoco's reply appears to have been unfavourable, and 
Fuentes's secretary had then exhibited to Tinoco three letters, -which 
he said had been written by Andrada to him from Calais. The first 
letter related that Dr. Lopez had sent him (Andrada) to say that he 
'■ was determined to do such a piece of service to the king of Castile 
as thereby he (Philip) might with safety satisfy himself of the English 
nation. But so as the King should recompense his services with honour 
and favour, according to the quality thereof ; for he was old, and in 
many ways indebted, and would now find rest for his old age. And 
declaring the quality of the service he (Andrada ?) told him (Fuentes) 
that Dr. Lopez bound himself to despatch the Queen by poison ; 
whereof it behoved him (Fuentes) to advertise the king of Spain 
thereof with all speed ; and he (Andrada) would attend at Calais 
until answer came from Madrid." According to Tinoco, it was at this 
point that Philip declined to proceed in such a matter by means of a 
person so discredited on both sides as Andrada. 



148 TREASON AND PLOT 

to Lopez, and a letter from Moura in Spain to 
Ferreira, instructing him that the " treaty of peace," 
which Tinoco said meant the murder of the Queen, 
should be renewed. Tinoco then returned to 
Flanders and Ferreira himself kept close to Lopez, 
urging him to do the service required of him, and 
Ferreira confessed that the Doctor demanded 50,000 
crowns down ; and according to the prosecution, it 
was the delay necessary for the return of Philip's 
answer to this demand that was referred to in the 
reply promised to be sent to Ferreira by Tinoco 
about the price of " pearls." Tinoco's own journey to 
England after Ferreira's arrest was said to have been 
urged by Fuentes for the purpose of encouraging the 
conspirators by the letters from Fuentes and Ibarra, 
and of exciting Lopez's cupidity by showing him 
bills of exchange for a large amount, which might 
be his after the commission of the crime. ^ 

It will be seen by these confessions that Tinoco's ^ 
avowals were all directed to prove his own innocence 
at the expense of Lopez and Ferreira, whilst the 
latter sought to shift the principal burden upon 
Lopez. Both the prisoners, however, admitted the 
main point, namely, that the conspiracy really aimed 

^ Be it recollected that three years before the Spanish Ministers had 
themselves offered 3o,o(X) for the killing of Don Antonio by Lopez. 

2 Tinoco confessed on 22nd February that Fuentes and Ibarra had 
summoned him to a secret chamber, and taking his hands in theirs, 
had made him pledge himself to inviolable secrecy. "After I had 
given them my word and faith . . . they told me that Ferreira had 
written to them that Lopez had offered and bound himself to kill the 
Queen of England by poison, on condition that the King of Spain 
should recompense his services according to their quality. This passed 
at the house of Count de Fuentes in Brussels, and as far as I remember 
on the 9th December last." 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 149 

at the Queen's death ; and the final triumph for 
Essex was to wring some sort of admission from 
Lopez himself. All the avowals of Tinoco and 
Ferreira were dangled before him daily in the 
Tower. First he indignantly denied his guilt; 
then, in terror or distress, he admitted that he had 
made a promise to the Spaniards to poison the 
Queen, but that his object was simply to cheat 
Philip out of a large sum of money and then to 
expose him. Although it is often asserted that 
this confession was made on the rack, this does 
not appear to have been the case. But however 
obtained, it sufficed ; and on the 28th February 
1594 Lopez was tried at Guildhall by special com- 
mission, including Essex and Cecil. Tinoco and 
Ferreira told their story again, with all the damning 
details. In accordance with the usual procedure 
in such cases, the accused was browbeaten and 
abused unmercifully by his judges and prosecutors. 
The various letters I have mentioned were made 
the most of, though of themselves without the de- 
clarations they would have proved nothing against 
Lopez,^ except perhaps the little notes that had 
passed between him and Ferreira when the latter 
was first arrested. The Doctor solemnly asserted 
that he was innocent ; and on being confronted 
with his own partial confession, he said that it had 
been made out of fear of the rack. This was 
denied; and he then averred that his only wish 

1 It must be recollected that the letters purporting to be written by 
Andrada in. Calais to Count Fuentes connecting Lopez directly with 
the plot to kill the Queen were only recited on the recollection of 
Tinoco, who asserted that they had been shown to him in Brussels by 
the secretary of Count Fuentes. 



I50 TREASON AND PLOT 

was to " coseD " King Philip. Confronted with 
Tinoco and Ferreira, he could only protest passion- 
ately that their evidence was all false, and he was in 
turn told by them that he lied. Lopez, guilty or 
innocent, was doomed long before, and on his 
own statement he was condemned to death as a 
traitor. Cecil was as eager as Essex now to wash 
his hands of sympathy with the fallen wretch, and 
directly he left Guildhall he wrote to a friend that 
"ye vile Jew sayd that he did confess indead to it 
that he had talk of it, but now he might tell further 
he did belie himself; and did it only to save himself 
from racking, which, ye Lord knoweth on my sowles 
wytness, to be most untrue : and so he was told 
home : and the most substantial jury I have seene 
have found him guilty in the highest degree of all 
treasons ; and judgment passed against him with ye 
applause of all ye world." ^ Ferreira and Tinoco 
were put upon their trial a fortnight afterwards, 
and, notwithstanding their prayers for mercy and 
their engaging frankness, there was no clemency for 
them. For some reason or other the Queen hesi- 
tated to sign the death-warrant. Lopez begged 
humbly for himself, his wife and children, but 
without avail so far as he was concerned. All 
England was in a ferment of indignation, owing 
to the revelations made by Ferreira and Tinoco, 
and the heat introduced into the accusations against 
Philip and his Ministers by the Essex party ; and 
at length, early in June 1594, the three poor 
wretches, bound to hurdles, were dragged up Holborn 
to Tyburn, and the penalty for treason was paid by 

^ State Papers, Domestic, cclvii. 



THE LOPEZ CONSPIRACY 151 

all of them, with a sickening barbarity exceeding 
even the usual awful rites/ Lopez in vain tried to 
speak to the vast scoffing crowd that faced him. 
Almost speechless with agitation, he solemnly pro- 
tested his innocence : mocking laughter and ribald 
interruption alone greeted his despairing cry. He 
was unfortunately inspired to say that he loved his 
mistress better than Jesus Christ ; and this, coming 
from a Jew, so incensed the multitude that the 
tumult silenced all else, and Ruy Lopez went to 
his death, and left his final secret to be guessed by 
others. 

The reader has had placed before him quite im- 
partially all the evidence known to be in existence 
upon which Lopez was condemned. He can judge 
for himself as to the righteousness of the sentence. 
That Lopez was willing to poison his master, Don 
Antonio, there is no reason to doubt ; that he was a 
false and lying trickster is proved beyond possibility 
of cavil and by his own statement ; but he was a 
clever, self-seeking man, and he must have known 
that to poison the Queen, whose chief physician he 
was, to gain the reward of a King who was notoriously 
a bad paymaster and an ungrateful patron, would 
have been foolish from a purely business point of 

1 It is related, though no authority is quoted, in Dr. Lee's "The 
Church under Queen Elizabeth," that one of the three, probably Tinoco, 
as he was the youngest, recovered his feet after the hanging, and, 
mad with pain and desperation, attacked the executioner. The crowd 
applauding his pluck, broke through the guard and made a ring to 
witness the fight. Two burly ruffians came to the executioner's help, 
but one was immediately felled by a blow from the prisoner, who kept 
the other two at bay for some time. The half-strangled creature was 
at length stunned with a blow on the head, and the disembowelling 
then proceeded. 



152 TREASON AND PLOT 

view. Lopez had made his home in England for forty 
years and all his interests were here. For a large 
reward he might have undertaken to poison Don 
Antonio, for the Pretender was discredited every- 
where, and his death would have injured no one but 
himself, but it was far otherwise in the case of the 
death of Elizabeth under the hands of her physician. 
That would have ruined Lopez socially and pro- 
fessionally; have made life for him impossible in 
England or any Protestant country, and have left 
him to the tender mercies of Philip and the Inquisi- 
tion unless he had sought oblivious refuge in Turkey, 
which, for a man of his antecedents, would have 
been as bad as death. 

The proofs against him are absolutely confined 
to the declarations of his two accomplices, and 
especially Tinoco, who confessed himself a perjurer, 
and both of them would probably have sworn to 
anything desired of them to save their necks. The 
evidence of Philip's complicity is for the most part 
demonstrably false, whilst that against Fuentes and 
Ibarra — so far as the plot to murder Elizabeth is 
concerned — rests likewise on extremely unsubstantial 
foundations. The whole of the original documents 
produced in the case were compatible with the 
objects of the conspiracy being: (i) the simulation 
of peace negotiations to obtain information ; (2) the 
winning over of Don Antonio's eldest son and his 
adherents; (3) the "cosening" of King Philip, for 
the benefit of the conspirators ; and (4) the murder 
of Don Antonio or of Antonio Perez. It is unwise 
to pronounce a dogmatic opinion on so very doubtful 
a case, but on a review of the quality of the whole 



YORKE AND WILLIAMS 153 

evidence, I am inclined to believe that one or more 
of these objects were those really aimed at. It is 
not at all necessary to believe that Essex purposely 
and knowingly sacrificed an innocent man, but the 
Earl's evident desire to incriminate Lopez would 
naturally influence the statements of the two 
prisoners, anxious for their own pardon, upon whose 
evidence mainly Lopez died. 

About a fortnight after the execution of Lopez, and 
whilst broadsides magnifying the danger to the realm 
were still in the hands of all men, Essex received a 
letter, written from Calais, by a young man of good 
family named Edmund Yorke. The writer expressed 
deep contrition that he had broken the law by going 
abroad without licence, and begged the Earl to sue 
for his pardon, and permission to return to his 
allegiance in England. He had, he said, been 
acknowledged at Brussels as heir to his uncle's 
property,^ but as the authorities there would not 
put him in possession of the inheritance until he 
swore allegiance to Philip, he preferred to renounce 
it, and to live as a '* poor good subject in England." 
He had with him, he said, two English gentlemen of 
like mind to himself, one of whom had served under 
Essex in France, and the other had been for three 
years in Sir William Stanley's regiment. They all 
begged for the Queen's pardon, and offered, if they 
were allowed to come over, to do good service to 
their natural sovereign. The vagaries of this young 
man in France and Flanders were not unknown to 

1 His uncle was Sir Rowland Yorke, who, when in command of the 
English contingent at Zutphen, went over with his regiment to the 
enemy. He had since died, leaving considerable property in Flanders. 



154 TREASON AND PLOT 

Essex. He had been consorting with Catholics in 
France, and latterly had been the constant companion 
of the most swaggering set of the exiles in Flanders. 
He had been received into the Church by Father 
Holt, and his relationship to the traitor Eowland 
Yorke was ominons. So, although Essex sent the 
permission for Edmund Yorke and his two com- 
panions, Richard Williams and Henry Young, to 
come to England, they were closely shadowed from 
the hour they first landed. Young was a rogue, 
pure and simple, and hastened, in the usual way, 
when he found that suspicion was entertained, to be 
the first to betray his companions. According to his 
first story,^ told on the 30th July 1594, the object of 
Yorke's coming was to raise rebellion in North 
Wales by the aid of Williams. They were to go in 
the winter to Conway, and, with the aid of local 
friends, to seize the castle : money was to be pro- 
vided by Williams' uncle, Ralph Sheldon, and a 
Mr. Pew, a rich Anglesea squire and trader, was 
to sell his estate and spend the money in maintain- 
ing the revolt, whilst a Captain Middleton of the 
Queen's Navy was to co-operate with his ship. 
According to Young, the assertion of Yorke about 
his uncle's property was false, and had been invented 
by Father Holt to throw the English Government off 
its guard. Yorke had already received ^250 of the 
inheritance, and the rest was being held for his 
benefit. The plan of invasion, said Young, had 
been devised by Sir W. Stanley, and in the various 
conferences about it he had identified Drs. Gifford, 
Holt, and Worthington. The trio of suspects had 

^ State Papers, Domestic, ccxlix. 



YORKE AND WILLIAMS 155 

feigned to be discontented with the leaders in 
Brussels, and had ostentatiously sold their cloaks in 
pretended poverty, and had given out that they 
intended to return to their allegiance in England. 

Coming after so many similar declarations, to 
which I have referred in the last chapter, this 
seemed important, and Yorke and Williams were at 
once cast into the Tower. Essex himself took the 
matter in hand, and began by interrogating Yorke, 
whose statement about himself was vague. Holt, he 
said, meant to send him to Scotland, but he did not 
know on what business. But when he saw or sus- 
pected that his associates had betrayed him, he grew 
very communicative about them. He had heard 
Young say that he had offered Father Holt in 
writing to kill the Queen, on condition of a good 
sum of money paid down, and more afterwards. 
Williams had thereupon said that he, too, would do 
it for a large sum of money, and advancement for 
his house, as he himself would be sure to die in the 
attempt. He (Yorke) declared that he had heard 
Sir William Stanley say that if the Queen were to 
die, he would take his regiment to Scotland, and 
there make himself strong, after which he and all 
Englishmen would go to the Earl of Derby. Wil- 
liams also had said in his hearing that if he came to 
England, he would commit some great robbery, and 
with the proceeds, and with the help of Pew, would 
raise a rebelHon. 

All this was the usual swashbuckling gossip of 
the Brussels refugees, directed specially to the 
inculpation of Young and Williams, whom Yorke 
suspected of betraying him. Young, he said, had 



156 TREASON AND PLOT 

sworn to kill both the Queen and Burghley, whilst 
Williams, who was the special friend of Lieutenant 
Jacques Francis, had talked loosely about doing 
some " great service " in England. With these 
admissions Essex was able to put the screw on 
Young, who evidently thought that Williams, and 
not Yorke, had betrayed him. Williams, he said, 
had stolen eighteen hundred pounds-worth of church 
plate from Winchester, and had coined it into 
money in the chamber of his uncle, Sir Griffin 
Markham, in Gray's Inn, sharing it with others. 
He had afterwards tried to break into the Queen's 
palace of Whitehall and steal her jewels, but one of 
the parties took fright and the attempt failed. He 
(Young) had written letters for Williams to Dr. 
GijBTord and other English refugees, asking for 
money and employment. In one of the letters 
Williams had demanded 200 crowns down and 
advancement for his house for the service, if he 
perished in the "action." Dr. Gifford replied to 
this that he should be employed with Yorke. Talk- 
ing of the killing of the Queen, Williams had said 
that only resolution was required, to which Yorke 
had replied " that they were fools to think of 
killing the Queen : she was always mewed up in a 
chamber. It would be better service to kill the 
Lord Treasurer's horse, for he would take it so 
grievously if the old jade were dead that he would 
die too." Williams had also said that he should 
like to tread under foot the base nobility of England 
that lived in servitude. 

These avowals, as will be seen, were directed mainly 
against Williams, and when, later in the day (12th 



YORKE AND WILLIAMS 157 

August), he was confronted with Young's accusa- 
tions, he was either too much terrified or too vain- 
glorious to palliate them greatly. He confessed that 
he had committed a robbery in England, and had 
taken service under Essex in France to get out of the 
way. He had deserted to the enemy, and now came 
to England for the purpose of raising rebellion, as 
Young had stated. It was quite true that he had 
sent offering his services in England to Holt and 
Gifford, but they had sent him a cool answer. He 
admitted that there was much talk in Brussels about 
killing the Queen, and Young had said that he 
would do it for money ; whereupon Yorke had 
ejaculated, " Tush ! you will kill the Lord Treasurer's 
nag." Torture soon wrung from the poor wretch 
further avowals. He gave particulars of all the 
Catholics and priests he knew, and was ready to 
confess everything. 

Two days afterwards Yorke was taken in hand. 
He had talked wildly and rashly : had expressed a 
wish to be present at the burning of London : had 
spoken with gross disrespect of Lord Burghley : had 
said that he knew Young to be an expert poisoner ; 
and these indiscretions, and the avowals of Young 
and Williams, made it easy for Essex and Cobham 
to handle him. On the rack he confessed that 
Father Holt had promised him 100,000 or 200,000 
crowns if he would raise a rebellion in England, 
"or do some notable act." The plan, he said, was 
to seize Conway ; and Williams immediately after- 
wards confirmed him in all that he admitted. On 
the 20th August Yorke was again examined ; and 
on this occasion he said all that was required of 



158 TREASON AND PLOT 

him. Holt, he confessed, had persuaded him to 
come over on the Queen's pardon and live at court ; 
and had promised him on oath a payment of 40,000 
crowns, guaranteed by Secretary Ibarra, if he killed 
the Queen, by his own agents or by means of two 
refugee associates designated to him. At the con- 
ferences on the subject he had met Stanley, Thomas 
Throgmorton, Charles Paget, Dr. Worthington, and 
Dr. Gifford, and various means of committing the 
crime were suggested — poignard, arrow, rapier, and 
dagger, to be used on the Queen as she walked in 
her garden. He had, he said, received forty crowns 
from Giiiord ; but they had kept him in want, in 
order that he should be driven to undertake the 
task. The plan was for him, Yorke, to have entered 
the household of Essex, Williams that of the Lord 
Admiral (Howard), and Young that of the Lord 
Chamberlain ; and on their departure they partook 
of the sacrament in pledge of their sincerity, being 
absolved by Father Holt. 

This was all admitted under torture ; and a day 
or two afterwards Young alleged that in conversation 
at Calais the poor, foolish young fellow Yorke had 
expressed wonder at any man betraying a friend on 
the rack. He had boasted of the Duke of Parma's 
admiration of Sir Eowland Yorke's firmness under 
torture, and had said, if they both kept firmly 
secret, they might yet ride through London with 
silver footcloths. Williams in the same conver- 
sation had boasted that he would rather die than 
betray his friends under torture, and said that if 
anything was dragged from him on the rack he 
would at once deny it again when he was taken 



YORKE AND WILLIAMS 159 

down. According, however, to Young, this con- 
versation at Calais unnerved Williams, for all his 
bragging, for when Essex's passport came allowing 
them to go to England, and he found himself 
described as " one Williams," he said they would 
be foolish to go over, for they might be racked and 
hanged. Young told the examiners, too, that the 
Council of State for England, which met in the 
Jesuit College at Brussels every morning, consisted 
of Charles Paget, Thomas Throgmorton, Hugh 
Owen, Captain Tresham, and Drs. Holt, Gifford, 
and Worthington. 

Williams's next admission was unreserved and 
damning. On the 27th August he confessed, as 
Yorke had done, that he had been sent by Holt 
and Stanley to kill the Queen, on promise of great 
reward ; and both he and Yorke had taken the 
sacrament upon it. This was said to Sir Michael 
Blount, Sir W. Waad, and the Attorney-General 
Coke ; but Essex made Williams repeat the state- 
ment in his presence, and wrote on the document 
containing it that " Williams had said that he 
would avow it to his death before Yorke's face." 
There was no need for it, for Yorke had already 
told almost the same story, and death for high 
treason was the inevitable doom of both.-^ 

There are two things specially to be noted in 
these confessions, and they did not escape the keen 
intellect of Lord Burghley." The evidence of the 
complicity of Secretary Ibarra depends only upon 
Yorke's statement that Holt had said that he 

1 All these confessions are in State Papers, Domestic, ccilix. 
^ Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 607. 



i6o TREASON AND PLOT 

guaranteed the payment ; and in Lord Burghley s 
hreviate a note points out that " this is all against 
Ibarra or any other Spaniard ; " and secondly, that 
in the list of persons given as being present at the 
conference which arranged the assassination there 
appear the names of Charles Paget, Worthing- 
ton, Gifford, and others, who were known to be 
opposed to the Jesuit policy.^ This was considered 
important enough for Yorke to be re-examined on 
the point, and he was constrained to admit that he 
was not quite sure of their being present. This 
seems to indicate that, at least in points of detail, 
his evidence cannot be depended upon. Holt and 
the few extremists in Brussels, who had been at the 
bottom of all the genuine attempts to kill Elizabeth, 
were evidently the originators of this ; but from the 
day of its discovery until now, one English historian 
after another has repeated that this conspiracy was a 
Spanish plot hatched by Fuentes and Ibarra. We 
have seen that Ibarra's connection with it depends 
upon a second-hand assertion, unconfirmed by any re- 
liable evidence, and yet the contemporary writers un- 
animously cast themselves specially upon this point; ^ 

1 It will be noted that Dv. GifFord, who was much more opposed 
than Worthington to the Spanish party, was mentioned by the prisoners 
in this case as an active accomplice. This is difficult to believe. 

2 In Yetswirt's " Sondry Horrible Treasons," written almost im- 
mediately after the event, it is stated that Yorke confessed that " Hugh 
Owen showed him at Brussels an assignation in writing, signed by 
Ibarra, for assurance of payment of 40,000 crowns, to be given to him 
from the King of Spain if he should kill the Queen, or should assist 
Williams or any other to perform the same. The assignation was 
afterwards deposited with Holt the Jesuit, who also showed it to 
Yorke, and swore on the sacrament to pay the amount as soon as the 
fact should be committed." I can find no such statements in Yorke's 
confessions in the State Papers. The main point, apparently, was to 
connect Spaniards with the plot. 



COMPLICITY OF SPANISH MINISTERS i6i 

and the plot of Holt, Yorke, and Williams, like that 
of Lopez, served as fresh fuel for the fire of hatred 
which it was the object of the Essex party to keep 
raging between England and Spain, it being repre- 
sented that Philip and his Ministers, both in the 
Lopez case and this, were the first instigators of the 
murder of the Queen. 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V 

Paris Archives, Uncalendared MSS., K. 1578, 7 and 11. As 
these documents have never been printed, and prove conclusively 
the falsity of much of the evidence upon which Lopez was 
convicted, I translate them here entire. They are in the form 
of minutes from the Secretary of State, Moura, to Philip, for 
his consideration and approval, and though they bear no date, 
they are correctly included in the papers for 1 5 9 1 . 

K. 1578, 7. Paris Archives Nationales. Fonds Simaiicas. 

" Respecting Manuel de Andrada and Pedro Marques his 
companion. 

"The things proposed by Manuel de Andrada are three in 
number : — 

" I. By means of Dr. Lopez he was opening negotiations for 
peace with England if permission be given to him to do so. He 
believes that he could carry these through successfully, as he 
understands that they (the English) desire it, and Dr. Lopez 
assures him of success. 

"2. By means of the same Dr. Lopez he will undertake, if 
so desired, that Don Antonio shall never leave that country 
(England). 

"3. Or otherwise that he shall be expelled at once, if that 
course be preferred. 

" Besides these three things, which are the main objects of his 
coming, he says that he has an understanding with an English- 
man, a brother-in-law of the said Dr. Lopez, who undertakes 
to send him advices of events there, and will also attempt to 
do another secret sei'vice which he (Andrada) recommended to 
him. This understanding with the brother-in-law is unknown 
to Dr. Lopez. 

" It appears that there can be no objection in letting this man 

(Andrada) return to England ; and to give him a pretext for 

162 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V 163 

doing so, it will be necessary to seize upon the first point of his 
proposals. He may therefore go to Calais, and write from there 
to Dr. Lopez that his coming has been prompted by the common 
good, begging him to send a passport. When he receives the 
passport, he may proceed whithersoever Dr. Lopez may instruct 
him. On his arrival he may tell him that he had proposed the 
peace negotiations here as Lopez had requested him, and had 
set forth the Doctor's good services ; whereupon all the (Spanish) 
Ministers had asked him (Andrada) what letters of credence or 
other authority he could produce to enable him to deal in the 
matter. This will lead them to infer that, if he had brought 
such credentials he would have been favourably listened to ; 
although, at the same time, he may say that he was told that 
it would be necessary for the peace suggestions to be accom- 
panied by due satisfaction for the offences inflicted upon Spain. 
Andrada should also be instructed to express hopes of success 
on some such basis as this, as if of his own motion, in order that 
he may have an excuse for remaining there safely for some 
time, and when he thinks best he can return ostensibly on the 
same matter. 

" He must be instructed that, whilst he remains in England, 
he may urge Dr. Lopez's brother-in-law to do the secret service 
proposed. And moreover, since Dr. Lopez himself gave his 
word to get Don Antonio expelled from England if his Majesty 
desired, he should be asked to fulfil his promise in this respect, 
as his offer to do so has been accepted, and his good service in 
all things will be acknowledged. 

" Under cover of all this, Manuel de Andrada must inquire and 
discover everything he can that is going on there, and send us 
full advices of the same 

"It is only reasonable that he should have a grant in aid. 
He himself proposes a grant secured on some Portuguese 
revenues. 

" His other demands must remain in abeyance for the present, 
but he may proceed on his service in the assurance that on his 
return he shall be very highly considered. 

" In addition to the grant in aid in Portugal, he will need some 
money for his voyage, as much as appears necessary. He asks 
for a jewel to be given to him for the daughter of Dr. Lopez, 
and he attaches importance to this. 



t64 treason and PLOT 

" He also requests money to remunerate the man lie has gained 
to give him information, and the Doctor's brother-in-law. There 
seems no objection to this being done in moderation. 

" Pedro Marques will apparently follow Andrada's lead, and 
will be more easily satisfied." 

This document was, as usual, sent by the King to Moura for 
his report and recommendations, and Moura returned the fol- 
lowing, of which Philip approved : — 

" The opinion of Don Cristohal de Moura respecting the matter 
of Manuel de Andrada. 

" He should be given 300 reals as a grant in aid for the 
expenses of his journey to England with his companion. 

" In addition to this he may be told that he shall have a 
grant not exceeding thirty reals (per month ?) secured on Indian 
revenues, but other than those that he proposes, as they cannot 
be allowed. 

" It will be just to give him something for the daughter of 
Dr. Lopez, and this may be one of the old jewels from his 
Majesty's caskets. 

" It will also be advisable to give him something for the 
brother-in-law of Dr. Lopez, who offers to do the service, and 
also for the other confidant who gives information. But as at 
present there is no money to spare, it will perhaps be best to 
take for this purpose also some of the jewels from the said old 
caskets belonging to his Majesty, as is suggested above for the 
other gift." 



CHAPTER VI 

The complete separation of the two sections of English Catholics — 
Alarm in England at the Spanish armaments — Drake's last 
voyage — Tyrone's declaration — Promise of Spanish aid — Irish 
emissaries to Spain — The expeditions of Captains Cobos, Medi- 
nilla, and Cisneros to Ireland — Their description of Ireland — 
Breakdown of the Spanish Administration — Essex's attack upon 
Cadiz. 

The indignant alarm aroused amongst Englishmen 
of all classes by the constant threats of conspiracy 
and foreign invasion on the part of the extreme 
faction of refugees, was now rapidly hurrying on the 
complete division amongst Catholics, which finally 
led to the victory of Protestantism and the peaceful 
succession of James to the English throne. The 
seminaries had all been captured by the Jesuit party; 
the moderating influence of Cardinal Allen had dis- 
appeared with his death (October 1594); Father 
Persons, with indefatigable activity and zeal, practi- 
cally controlled Philip's policy with regard to Eng- 
land ; and Father Holt in Flanders, by his hauteur 
and violence alienated all but those whose views 
were as extreme as his own. These causes together 
operated in the formation of a strong anti-Jesuit 
Catholic party in England and abroad. We have 
seen that from the first the secular priests disap- 
proved of the violent political action of the Fathers 
of the Company, and had smarted under their airs of 
superiority. Ever since the defeat of the Armada and 

i6s 



1 66 TREASON AND PLOT 

the exposure of Philip's real objects, the breach had 
been widening, but the reconciliation of Henry lY. 
to Rome, and the now acknowledged hopelessness of 
Philip's attempt to gain for his favourite daughter a 
foothold in France, gave rise to circumstances which 
drove both sections of Catholics still farther apart. 
Henry IV. being now a faithful son of the Church, 
and the French interest in the counsels of the 
Vatican being restored, the anti-Spanish Catholic 
party was greatly strengthened, whilst the Jesuit 
interest, to counterbalance this, endeavoured to 
pledge the King of Spain to its uncompromising 
course by openly advocating as their candidate for 
the English throne the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, 
who, through Philip's father and mother, claimed the 
crown by right of descent from John of Gaunt and 
Edward III. The book published by Persons under 
the name of Dolman, and dedicated, with character- 
istic audacity, to the ambitious favourite, Essex, 
completely opened the eyes of Catholics and Pro- 
testants alike. Its eJffect upon the English Catholics 
was marked and immediate. The group of exiles 
who followed Charles Paget and Dr. Gifford in 
Flanders and the Bishop of Cassano in Italy de- 
nounced the unpatriotic Englishmen who would 
submit their country to a foreign yoke ; the turbulent 
English students in Rome broke out into open re- 
volt against their Jesuit masters,-^ and the Catholic 
prisoners in the castle of Wisbech divided into two 
distinct antagonistic sections, even in their common 

^ Full partieulars of this disturbance will be found in Law's " Jesuits 
and Seculars," p. xxix., and the sequel may be followed in " The 
Archpriest Controversy " (Camden Society). 



JESUITS V. SECULARS 167 

tribulation. To make matters warse, the cardinal's 
hat vacant by the death of Allen was struggled for 
with so much acrimony by both sections, that neither 
Persons, Stapleton, nor the Bishop of Cassano got it, 
and the much needed English Catholic prelate, with 
sufficient authority to introduce a spirit of modera- 
tion on both sides, was not appointed. Moderation 
and compromise, indeed, were utterly foreign to 
Persons' methods and aims ; ^ and the secular priests, 
on the other hand, did not mince their words when 
they exposed the disastrous effects produced upon 
the Catholic cause in England by Jesuit action.^ 
They who, for the great part, had to bear the brunt 
of the persecution, could not fail to see that the 
constant impotent aggression kept up by the extreme 
party from its safe refuge on the other side of the 
water gave justification for the severe penal enact- 
ments from which all Catholics suffered. 

The cause of Spain itself, moreover, was irretriev- 

^ In 1596 Persons threw down the gage anew by circulating his 
manuscript book called " Memorial of the Eeformation in England," 
in which he set forth his views as to how this should be carried out, 
in case he died before the restoration of Catholicism. There was to be 
no " huddling up " this time, he said, whereby fallen priests were ad- 
mitted to the altar, with no other satisfaction but sending away their 
concubines. The Church property was to be restored ; there was to be 
no political paltering with that question, as there had been in Mary's 
time; and "some good and sound manner of Inquisition" must be 
established. It is plain to see that the only Catholic England with 
which Persons would be contented was one modelled on Catholic Spain. 
It is evident, from such blind bigotry as this, that Persons, for all his 
ability, was utterly out of touch with the vast majority of his country- 
men, and that the adoption of such a policy as his by the only foreign 
power that could effectively aid the Catholics of England to reassert 
the supremacy of their faith, rendered their cause hopeless. 

2 See Father Bagshaw's "True Relation," reprinted in Law's 
" Jesuits and Seculars." 



1 68 TREASON AND PLOT 

ably damaged by the policy of the hot-headed zealots 
who bragged and swaggered in Flanders, and who 
wrote impracticable and violent books in Spain. 
All England was kept in a ferment and for ever on 
the alert. Philip's slow and cumbrous methods made 
sudden action at a moment when England was un- 
prepared in any case difficult, but thanks to the 
continual threatening boasts and abortive plots of 
Stanley and his party and the alarmist reports of the 
English spies, all the Spanish plans were forestalled 
long before they were even matured. 

As we have seen in chapter iii., the English Govern- 
ment were fully informed of the proceedings of both 
the Scottish and Irish emissaries in Spain during the 
winter of 1594 and the spring and summer of 1595, 
and, as usual, gave to Philip a credit for promptness 
and liberality in acceding to the prayers for help which 
neither his character nor his resources permitted. 
He was chronically in want of money, and the capture 
of his treasure fleet, or any considerable portion of it, 
crippled him for a year at least. The loss of Brest 
had made a direct invasion of England in force again 
impossible, for Blavet was too small a port for the 
rendezvous of a great navy, and the new ships which 
the Spaniards had constructed, although persistently 
viewed in England as a threatening Armada destined 
for invasion, were, in fact, mainly intended to protect 
Spanish trade and to ensure the arrival of the treasure 
fleets, upon which the potency of Spain depended. 
Although, therefore, the English knew it not, Philip 
was in a position to give only very small aid, if any 
at all, in 1595 to those who were urging him to strike 
a blow which should overturn Protestantism in the 



DRAKE'S LAST VOYAGE 169 

three kingdoms. But the constant alarm in which 
England was kept by the action of the extremists in 
Flanders, cleverly and systematically exaggerated by 
the Essex war party at home,^ led to the re-adoption 
of an aggressive policy on the part of England in 
1595, which drove Philip to despair, and compelled 
him to make one more great effort, by which at least 
the English might be diverted from ravaging his own 
coasts and commerce. 

Drake had for years been under a cloud, though 
doing useful work at Plymouth, but he chafed at 
the naval supineness which had fallen upon the 
councils of Elizabeth. He knew that without the 
money from America, Philip, the national enemy, 
was powerless, and Protestantism safe. The treasure 
depot at Panama was the heart from which flowed 
the life-blood of Spain. Let me strike at that, 
prayed Drake, and the giant sinks to impotence. 
Elizabeth doubted and hesitated long ; for she hated 
her wooden walls to drift too far away, and the 
stories of Philip's preparations and the Bearnais' 
shiftiness grew more and more alarming, thanks to 

^ A good instance of this is seen when Antonio Perez was sent back 
to the court of Henry IV. much against his will by Essex in 1595. His 
mission was to send alarming news to Essex as to Henry's intentions to 
make peace with Spain and break with England, the object of Essex 
being to force Elizabeth to join Henry against the common enemy. At 
the beginning of 1596 Sir Henry Unton was sent to France on a special 
mission, officially to offer Henry further help in return for the occupa- 
tion by England as security of Calais and some other French towns. 
Unton, however, was secretly instructed by Essex to prompt Henry to 
feign anger and indignation with England and to threaten to make 
friends with Spain. Unton M'as to " send us thundering letters, where- 
by he must drive us to propound and offer." This was behind the back 
of the Cecils and the rest of the Council. See "The Great Lord 
Burghley," by the present writer. 



lyo TREASON AND PLOT 

Essex's cleverness. But at last the Queen con- 
sented, and in January 1595 gave to the great 
Admiral his last commission, she herself providing 
a powerful contingent to the joint-stock fleet. The 
news stirred England like a bugle-blast, and volun- 
teers flocked in thousands to join the expedition ; 
for on the sea the English could beat the Spaniards 
wherever they met them, and the temper of the 
country was in favour of bold offensive action — 
especially with abundant loot in sight. 

The terror of Drake's name had lost none of its 
potency in Spain, and the news that he was to 
sail the sea again fell upon Philip like a blight. 
In March and April, we are told, thousands of 
Spanish soldiers deserted. Lisbon in a single week 
was abandoned in a panic by most of its in- 
habitants. " From the highest to the lowest, all the 
people had no other talk than of Drake's coming," ^ 
wrote one of Burghley's spies ; and a traveller 
returning from Spain in April 1595^ testified that 
"the intelligence there that Sir Francis Drake is 
preparing to go to sea wonderfully troubles them, 
because of the Indian fleet which is to bring great 
treasure, and the King is in great want of money." 
The same informant says that the people in Lisbon 
were in great fear. "The King has made great 
preparations ; but if this money does not come he 
will be unable to off"end or invade this year. The de- 
ponent learnt that an Irish bishop went from Spain 
to the Earl of Tyrone last Christmas, and certain 

1 State Papers, Domestic, March 1 6, 1595. 

2 Examination of Eichardson, State Paioers, Domestic, April 26, 

1595- 



ALARM IN SPAIN AND ENGLAND 171 

men with him, by whom the King promised to 
send the Earl 40CO men every year to assist him. 
But he will send nothing until he knows where 
Sir Francis Drake is going. Also, lately a gentle- 
man from the northern Lords of Scotland was sent 
from them to the King (of Spain), and a priest in 
his company. The Lords demand money to be lent 
to them, and the King offered to give them money 
if they will assure him to land men in Scotland 
where he shall appoint, and will help him with 
10,000 men to join him in his pay." ^ " Had Drake 
been able to strike whilst the enemy were thus ripe 
for defeat, the blow must have been of deep ejQfect, 
but the usual interminable delays prevented his 
sailing. The Queen laid the blame on the admirals, 
the admirals on the Queen." " But whilst Drake, 
hampered by Hawkins and the old politicians in 
London, was thus delayed, the Spanish treasure fleet 
arrived safely ; ^ and reports, more alarming than 
ever, of Philip's preparations and intentions came 
fast and thick from the spies. In July colour was 
given to these reports by the sudden raid of four 
galleys with 400 Spaniards on the Cornish coast. 
The country around Newlyn and Penzance was 
burnt and devastated, and the towns and villages 
were destroyed. The country levies in a panic fled, 
leaving Sir Francis Godolphin, their commander, 
with only five or six gentlemen to stand by him, and 
the triumphant Spaniards ostentatiously attended 



^ Examination of Eichardson, State Papers, Domestic, April 26, 

1595- 
2 Corbett's " Drake and Tudor Navy." 
^ State Papers, Domestic, May 17, 1595, Palavicini to BurgUey. 



172 TREASON AND PLOT 

Mass upon a hill overlooking the smoking ruins 
of Penzance. Rumours flew through England that 
the Armada was now to be avenged. But after 
all, the whole business was but a flash in the pan. 
The four vessels had been driven from Brittany 
into Penzance by the stress of weather and lack 
of drinking water, and the invaders, finding the 
place unprotected, had worked their will. They 
soon grew frightened at their own temerity, and 
took advantage of a northern breeze to run back in 
safety to Blavet. But the raid thoroughly alarmed 
the Queen, and she determined to forbid Drake 
from sailing on his voyage. She had just received 
also the news — premature, as Ave have seen in a 
former chapter — of an intended expedition in force 
being about to sail from Spain to aid the Ulster 
rebels, and she ordered Drake to await on the 
coast of Ireland the threatened approach of the 
Spaniards. Failing to meet them, he was to proceed 
to the Spanish coast and to intercept any Spanish 
naval force that might sail from there towards 
England ; and if no such Spanish force appeared, 
he was to cruise for a month on the look out for 
Spanish galleons homeward bound, and finally 
proceed on the voyage to Panama, on the un- 
derstanding that he must be back in England in 
the following spring, to withstand the threatened 
invasion. These instructions were ridiculous, and 
would have meant the abandonment of the Panama 
expedition altogether. The politicians and lands- 
men were once more for tying the hands of the 
great seaman on his own element ; but Drake was 
a hard man to bind, and he told the Council that, 



DRAKE'S LAST VOYAGE 173 

though on his way south he would look out for 
any Spanish force bound for England and follow 
it, he could not remain wasting precious time on 
the coast of Ireland. 

The Queen herself thereupon wrote a letter 
(August 9) to the admirals, telling them in strict 
secrecy " what she should require of them," and the 
reasons for the orders she gave. She had been 
advised, she said, that three squadrons were being 
fitted out in Spain, one at Cadiz, another at Lisbon, 
and a third at Ferrol, Corunna, and the Biscay 
ports. "By some reports, we think they intend a 
voyage to Ireland, to land about Tredagh ; we cannot 
understand whether it is to be before next winter, 
but we suspect it. The preparations in Spain are 
greater than in 1588, and it is not to be doubted 
they intend to invade England or Ireland next 
summer. For this reason we find it dangerous to 
yield to your departure at present, and especially 
before the present attempt in Ireland be discovered ; 
but, most of all, lest you should not have returned 
next summer in convenient time to help to do ser- 
vice against the Spanish army, expected to attempt 
the invasion of this realm about June or July,"^ 
She forbade them, in fact, to sail at all unless they 
promised to be back by the following May, however 
profitable the voyage might be. If they could not 
promise that, they were to consider what they could 
do now to destroy ships and stores on the coasts of 
Spain, so as to prevent an invasion of England in 
the following year. They replied that their ships 
had been fitted out by a joint-stock enterprise for a 

1 State Papers, Domestic, ccliii. August 9, 1595. 



174 TREASON AND PLOT 

certain purpose, and were not adapted to such work 
as she indicated, but, if she insisted upon it, she 
must bear the whole expense of the squadron her- 
self. She was deeply incensed at this. Burghley 
and Howard, neither of them a friend of Drake, 
supported the Queen, and Elizabeth grew more tart 
and peremptory in every letter as the admirals re- 
mained firm,^ so that it was already September 1595 
before the two great seamen, Drake and Hawkins, 
already at loggerheads, sailed from England to re- 
turn no more. 

In the meanwhile, the supposed danger of a 
Spanish invasion for that year, which had really 
never existed, had disappeared, but Philip was 
slowly maturing the plans upon which he had de- 
cided to cripple England, by bringing, as he said, 
the fire to her own doors. We have seen that the 
Archbishop of Tuam had advised Philip to write a 
loving letter to Tyrone, urging him to avow himself 
openly on the side of the Catholics. Accompanied 
by an Irishman named Lacy and a Spanish captain, 
the Archbishop sailed from Spain, carrying this and 
other letters to the Irish chiefs, assuring them of 
Spanish support if Tyrone declared himself at one 
with O'Donnell, Macguire, and CRourke. Of the 
Archbishop and his companions no more was ever 
seen on earth ; but doubtless intelligence of the 
message they bore reached Tyrone by other means ; 
and in the summer of 1595 he boldly threw off" the 
mask, called himself by the forbidden name of the 
O'Neil, and defied the English garrison. 

The news rejoiced the little knot of fervid Irish- 

^ Hatfield Papers, vol. v. 



TYRONE REBELS 175 

men who waited and prayed in the Peninsula, for 
it meant to most of them the certain prospect of 
returning to the land they loved. The Bishop of 
Killaloe, the most ardent patriot of them all, wrote 
in July to Tyrone hailing his action with praise and 
gratitude, hoping " that by his means the Catholic 
faith should be spread over the whole country, so 
that there, where the body of St. Patrick rests, there 
also should the restitution of that faith be accom- 
plished, and the honour and praise of it remain for 
evermore." Now, he says, that we know that the 
Earl of Tyrone has openly taken up arms with other 
chieftains against the Queen, I have every confi- 
dence you will meet with success. " I have ear- 
nestly, but with great caution, persuaded the King 
to send you a fleet with which to oppose the enemy 
and subjugate the English Government, and that 
you may free yourself and all your people from the 
oppressive yoke of the English for ever. Further- 
more, I find the King most willing to send you 
immediate assistance. Wherefore you must man- 
fully and bravely resist, without making any peace 
or treaty with the enemies of the faith ; for King 
Philip has seen these letters, and has told me to 
write that you shall be helped immediately, so that 
you may crush the enemy. ... I promise you that 
instant succour shall not be wanting. . . . The one 
thing I ask and pray is, that you make no peace 
with the foe until I come to you." 

This must have reached Tyrone in August 1595, 
shortly after his successive defeats at Armagh and 
Newry at the hands of the Lord-Deputy Russell and 
General Sir John Norreys, and doubtless caused his 



176 TREASON AND PLOT 

changed tone towards the English. Time seemed 
now the principal thing to be gained by the Ulster- 
men until the promised "immediate" aid reached 
them from Spain, and Tyrone's new temporising 
with his enemies was obviously only in the hope 
that the Bishop of Killaloe's promise for Philip 
should be promptly kept. Alas ! Tyrone then knew 
less of the Spanish King's methods than we do, or 
than he himself learnt afterwards, to his cost. In 
September the Ulster chief called beseechingly upon 
Philip to send the aid "now or never," and with his 
letter to the King sent others addressed to the 
Spanish commanders in Brittany, praying them to 
urge their master to promptness. " Ireland," said 
Tyrone, "would acknowledge no other King than 
his Catholic Majesty. If I may know for surety 
that I shall have Spanish aid, I will make no peace 
with the heretics. They shall fail within a year in 
Ireland like smoke before the flame." 

But these letters were intercepted, and the bearer, 
an Irish priest, O'Cullan, was put under examination 
and forced to tell his story ; how he had come from 
Spain twenty days before, and how the Earl, when 
he gave him the letters for Spain, bade him be 
importunate for an answer, or he might be obliged 
to make peace with the English. He was to ask the 
Spaniards, he said, for 3000 or 4000 troops before 
May at latest ; but if the men could not come so 
soon, at least the King should send to Ireland muni- 
tions and money. If the King would thus help 
them, the envoy was bidden to say that they would 
" submit themselves to be governed by him as good 
subjects." 



TYRONE APPEALS TO PHILIP 177 

But though these missives were captured, Tyrone 
contrived to send his Jesuit confessor, Father Mum- 
ford, with similar urgent letters a few weeks after- 
wards,^ whilst he artfully kept up his show of 
negotiations with the Lord-Deputy, much to the 
disgust of Norreys, who was all for striking a blow 
at the rebel combination by crushing Connaught, 
now that " their hearts are broken in Ulster." The 
Queen, he warned Burghley, must make up her mind 
either to end the war by conciliation, or else pro- 
vide full and timely resources to root out the rebels 
for once and for all. The latter, Elizabeth, in her 
frugality, was unwilling to do, and the hollow nego- 
tiations with Tyrone dragged on. The exaggerated 
reports of preparations in Spain came almost weekly 
to the English Government, whilst Russell, the Lord- 
Deputy, with every fresh report warned Burghley 
and the Queen that Tyrone was only dallying until 

1 The most exaggerated news of Tyrone's successes was current in 
Spain at the time. The Venetian Ambassador in October sent to the 
Doge a report which had been brought to Lisbon by a caravel that had 
sailed from Ireland on the 21st September, doubtless the vessel which 
conveyed Father Mumford. "Tyrone," the report said, "had found 
himself face to face with Norreys, near Antrim ; and in reply to an 
offer of the Queen's pardon if he laid down his arms, the Prince O'Neil 
had refused peace unless all his friends were pardoned, the Catholic 
religion allowed without molestation, and the exiles restored to their 
estates and revenues. In the battle that ensued on the 19th. September, 
on a great plain, the heretics, to the number of 8000, were routed and 
broken. Norreys himself was wounded by a shot in the arm, and his 
brother dangerously in the thigh. Fifteen hundred trained troops fell, 
and they say that not an Englishman escaped except a few fugitives 
who fled to a fort where there are 400 wounded and dead. O'Neil 
captured all the heavy guns and baggage. At the same time another 
officer of the Catholic League routed 300 English in Connaught, 
O'Neil is said to have burnt four of the principal of the heretic 
officers though Norreys offered large sums for their ransom " (Vene- 
tian Calendar). 

M 



178 TREASON AND PLOT 

the promised Spanish force should come. But 
nothing could persuade or convince Elizabeth to 
adopt a liberal or bold course, so the talk of truce 
and " composition " with Tyrone continued, whilst 
O'Donnell and O'Rourke, less diplomatic than their 
chief, sulked unappeased amongst their bogs and 
mountains. 

In the meanwhile, swift pinnaces ran backwards 
and forwards from Sligo and Donegal to Spain. 
Several of them were lost or captured by the Eng- 
lish, but some of the messages reached Philip from 
the chieftains. The news of Tyrone's diplomacy was 
as gall and wormwood to him, and for a time the 
principal Irish hero in Spain was not the temporising 
Earl, but Bryan Oge O'Rourke of the Battle-axes, 
who still smote the English who came within his 
reach. Early in the year 1596 an Irish priest, 
Brian O'Donnell, was sent from Spain with messages 
to the chiefs, praying them not to make truce or 
peace with the heretics, and promising them aid if 
they would keep in arms. To O'K-ourke especially 
letters of fervent praise and exhortation were written 
by Philip II., and by the Bishop of Killaloe in 
Lisbon, congratulating him upon his recent victory 
over an English force, and promising him a prompt 
remittance of arms and munitions of war. The 
Bishop's letter, however, plainly indicates the know- 
ledge that the attempt to withstand the English in 
Ireland, except under Tyrone's leadership, will be 
hopeless, and he urges O'Rourke to obey the Earl 
in all things. The Bishop requests O'Rourke, also, 
to get " some principal learned man to write in his 
(O'Rourke's) name to the Pope, beseeching him to 



IRISH ENVOYS TO SPAIN 179 

separate Ireland for ever from the English domi- 
nation, and to appoint Tyrone King of Ireland." ^ 

When Father O'Donnell arrived at Donegal, he 
found the truce between Tyrone and the English 
about to be signed, but was assured by the Ulster 
chiefs that it was only a subterfuge to enable them 
to await the coming of the Spanish force ; and 
O'Donnell, the chief, and O'Rourke sent their con- 
fessor, another Irish priest, to Spain for the purpose 
of explaining the situation to Philip. There was 
no pinnace available to carry him across, so he had 
to travel in disguise through the English pale to 
Dublin, and leaving Connaught in March, it took 
him two months to arrive in the presence of the 
King. The relation he gave is extremely curious,^ 
though apparently highly tinged by Celtic imagi- 
nation. In the beginning of January, he said, the 
Earl of Tyrone, who was now Prince and Grand 
O'Neil, issued from his principality of Ulster, " which 
is the fifth part of Ireland," and came within eight 
leagues of Dublin, where many Catholic gentlemen 
joined him, " especially a great gentleman named 
O'Reilly, with all his following, his estates being 
thirty leagues long. They took a fortress called 
Cavan, and killed all the heretics there. All the 
Catholic gentlemen of Meath sent word that if the 
Catholic King would send them help they would 

^ It should not be forgotten that the Bishop himself was an O'Neil. 
The advice to O'Rourke to get some " principal learned man " to write 
his letters was less needed in his case than in some others. O'Rourke 
had been an Oxford student, and his signature is well written. The 
letters from the chiefs are (generally written in Latin by priests and 
signed by themselves either in Latin or in Irish. 

2 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



i8o TREASON AND PLOT 

join at once." A cousin of Tyrone, he reported, 
Brian O'Neil, had also killed 400 heretics at Newry, 
and as many more at Carlingford. On the 13th 
February, in Connaught, O'Donnell and O'Eourke 
had gathered an army of 8000 foot and 500 horse, 
with which they had approached Galway, the only 
strong place held by the English, where they were 
met by 3000 of the enemy, very few of whom 
escaped by flight to the shelter of the city walls ; the 
Catholics being unable to attack Galway for want 
of artillery. Three days after this victory, continued 
the confessor, six great chiefs who had been on the 
side of the English joined the Catholics, with all 
their vassals. The O'Connor Don, with twenty 
leagues of land, O'Kelly with as much, O'Connor 
Koe (McDermot) with twelve leagues, O'Malley 
with eight leagues, Macguire with twelve leagues, 
O'Flaherty with twelve leagues, and McDermot 
with eight leagues. The English all fled from the 
province to Dublin, except 300 in the strong towns 
of Killaloe and Roscommon, which could not be 
attacked as the Catholics had no artillery. O'Rourke, 
too, had killed 100 Englishmen near one of these 
towns, and had approached Dublin, being joined 
by O'Ferrall with 600 vassals and other men of 
Meath; whilst O'More had risen in Leinster and 
burnt fourteen heretic towns and had co-operated 
with O'Rourke from Connaught. 

After all this talk of victory it must have dis- 
appointed Philip to be told, as he was, that before 
the messenger left a two months' truce had been 
signed : "in the hope of the Spanish succour 
arriving." The Catholics still had in the field, said 



IRISH ENVOYS TO SPAIN i8i 

the priest, two armies forty leagues apart : one under 
Tyrone, with 16,000 foot and 2000 horse, within 
eight leagues of Dublin, and the other, commanded 
by O'Donnell and O'Rourke, near Galway, with 
10,000 men/ When the truce expires they intend 
to follow the English into Munster, where, and in 
Dublin, all those who have been left alive have 
taken refuge. The "Englishwoman" was to send 
20,000 men to Ireland in May, but if his Catholic 
Majesty would send help, the Catholics did not fear 
double that number. In conclusion they begged 
for great-artillery, muskets, and powder, when they 
doubted not to have the whole country in their 
power ; and above all, that the bishops, priests, and 
other Irishmen now in Spain should be sent home. 

This flourishing story, with its disappointing rider 
of a truce, was not of a sort to move Philip without 
further evidence," and for this he had not long to 
wait. Since the first day in the year he had been 
fitting out in Lisbon a little expedition of three or 
four vessels, with several trusty ofiicers of his own 
on board, to visit the Irish chief, carrying with them 
presents in money, a few arms, and many exhortations 
and promises, their principal object being to examine 
closely the strength of the rebels and the military 

1 This, as will be seen, was an absurd exaggeration. When Philip's 
experienced military officers reported to him officially as to the armed 
force which each of the Catholic chiefs could raise, they found that the 
aggregate number was less than 6000 foot and iioo horse. 

2 In many letters from Philip that have passed through my hands 
there are evidences of his distrust and disbelief in priests as relators 
of facts or as organisei's. The Irish confessor in the present instance 
seems to have drawn very largely upon his imagination, most of the 
victories over the English, the slaughter, &c., which he relates being 
entirely without foundation. 



1 82 TREASON AND PLOT 

capabilities of the country. As a forerunner to this 
little expedition there went in April from Santander 
to Killibegs a swift pinnace carrying Ensign Alonso 
de Cobos, entrusted with letters from Philip to the 
Catholics again urging them to stand firm and to 
make no truce with the enemy. His arrival empty- 
handed except of letters and promises, after Tyrone 
and O'Donnell had signed the two months' truce, was 
a subject for considerable embarrassment for the 
chiefs. They assured Cobos, on the one hand, that 
the truce was only a feint, and on the other, pro- 
tested to Lord-Deputy Russell and General Norreys 
that they had sent the Spaniard away curtly, " as 
they had now been received into the favour of 
their own princess, wherein they will continue." 
With the Spaniard they made the best of the matter, 
so as not to lose the long-promised succour. Cobos 
was persuaded to give them a sort of certificate that, 
although terms satisfactory to them had been offered 
by the English for a permanent peace, they had, on 
his arrival, " solely on conscientious grounds and out 
of affection for his Majesty, desisted from finally 
making peace . . . and now sincerely turned their 
hearts to God and the King, in whose service as 
faithful vassals they will remain during his Majesty's 
pleasure." Although Philip's famous letter sent by 
Cobos to the EarP was forwarded by the latter, as he 
said, only for perusal to Norreys, with protestations of 
his refusal of all Philip's advances and his loyalty to 
the Queen, Cobos carried with him to Spain fervent 
letters from Tyrone, O'Donnell, Macguire, McSuyne, 

^ A copy of Philip's letter to Tyrone (of which copy more will be 
heard) is in the Irish State Papers, cxc. 6. 



CAPTAIN COBOS IN IRELAND 183 

O'Eourke, and (most violent of all) from McWilliam 
Bourke of Mayo, begging for aid to the Catholics and 
professing unalterable loyalty to Philip/ They re- 
quired, they said, 6000 soldiers and arms for 10,000 
more, and begged that the Cardinal Archduke 
Albert might be appointed their sovereign under 
the protection of Spain. 

No sooner had Cobos sailed homewards than the 
more formal expedition from Lisbon arrived in Ire- 
land. The two captains who were entrusted with 
the negotiations appear to have been good specimens 
of their class and time, brave, quarrelsome, and 
jealous. Cisneros, who was the senior, began by 
giving himself the airs and title of " ambassador," ^ 
and the junior, Medinilla, who was to remain with 
the Irish chiefs as military adviser, became jealous. 
Henceforward the two captains were at daggers 
drawn, and, as I suspect, came to blows before 
their return to Spain. ^ The expedition appears at 
first to have put into the Bourke country, on the 
coast of Mayo, where the Spaniards boasted of 
the great things that their king would do for the 
Catholics. Money they had in plenty to distribute 
amongst those who would join the rebels ; wine 
flowed in unwonted streams to the gallowglasses 
who flocked down to the coast to see the outlandish 
strangers ; and the great MacWilliam Bourke himself 
— Marquis of Connaught dubbed now — who sent one 

^ These letters have all been transcribed from the originals at Simancas 
by the present writer, and are printed in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 
Almost exactly similar letters were sent back by the next expedition in 
the following month. 

^ Irish State Papers, July 27, 1596 ; Calendar, p. 50. 

3 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. p. 625. 



1 84 TREASON AND PLOT 

hundred beeves for the refreshment of the Spaniards, 
had his present refused except on condition that he 
would receive their full value in Spanish gold. 

The first problem was to persuade the chiefs to 
meet the King of Spain's " ambassador." The most 
important of them, Tyrone and O'Donnell, were 
swearing loyalty to their own sovereign, and the Eng- 
lish were watching them with distrustful eyes. Mayo, 
under Bingham's iron fist, was out of the question 
as a meeting-place, and Bourke proposed that the 
captains should accompany him by land to summon 
the chiefs to the monastery of Donegal for the con- 
ference. To Cisneros this seemed a good oppor- 
tunity for observing the state of the country and 
the strength of the Catholics, but Medinilla refused 
to leave the ships, which apparently then went round 
to Teelin, Sligo, and Killibegs. It was not easy to 
persuade the rebel chiefs to leave their retreats, but 
the King of Spain was a dazzling name to conjure 
with, and most of them were assembled finally at 
Donegal to receive the message sent by Philip. 
The Irish, he said, originally came from Spain, and 
he, the King, who had always favoured them, would 
now deliver them from the oppression of the Eng- 
lish, for which purpose he would join his forces to 
theirs, and send with them stores and money. 

The spies told the English that the chiefs raised 
objections. The Spaniards were far off, they said, 
and the English near at hand, with all the strong 
places in their possession. It would be unwise for 
the Irish to risk everything by refusing the fair 
terms now offered to them by the Lord-Deputy, 
unless they were quite sure that the King would 



SPANISH ENVOYS TO IRELAND 185 

keep his promise to them, so as to make success 
certain. Cisneros replied that thousands of men 
should be sent, and went far beyond his instruc- 
tions in the promises he gave ; ^ whereupon, says 
the English account, "all the rabble of the Irishry 
gave a roll of the names of the lords, as they call 
them, who would depend upon the King, and follow 
his counsel; that in expectation of that succour 
they would forbear to make any composition till 
mid-August, so they might have munition to defend 
themselves in the meanwhile." 

The letters carried back to the King by the 
captains are worded in a more exalted strain than 
this, and repeat the professions of loyalty and at- 
tachment to Philip taken a few weeks before by 
Cobos. We see the result of Tyrone's prudence, 
however, in his refusal to allow Medinilla to remain 
with him in order that he might be able to say, 
as he did, that he had refused to enter into any 
negotiations against his allegiance to the Queen. ^ 
After an exciting fight with an English ship at 
the mouth of the Tagus, the captains arrived in 
Lisbon, bringing with them a curious account of 
the state of the rebel forces in Ireland in the form 
of answers to eighteen exhaustive questions, such 
as Philip loved. What did they (the chiefs) want ? 
was the first question, and, as usual, the King 

^ The Englisli account of the meeting is in the Irish Calendar, July 
26, 1596, and the Spanish reports, with a copy of Cisneros' instruc- 
tions, in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. p. 620. 

* The Spaniards were at this time very distrustful of Tyrone's 
trimming, as will be seen later ; and an English ofl&cer was told (7th 
June) by Shan O'Brian that the Spaniards threatened to banish Tyrone 
with his friends the English if he did not join their forces when they 
(the Spaniards) landed in Ireland. 



1 86 TREASON AND PLOT 

required to know the irreducible minimum. The 
captain was to suggest "prudence and due con- 
sideration " in their demands, and was to " hint 
softly at the difficulties in the way, to see how they 
meet them, but do not push this far enough to 
cause distrust." But with all the minimising of 
the Spaniards, the chiefs asked for arms for 10,000 
footmen, corselets, pikes, morrions, harquebuses, 
muskets, powder, ball, &c., and 1000 men at once, 
to be sent with these munitions pending the coming 
of a large Spanish force. Cisneros reported favour- 
ably upon the unity of Tyrone and O'Donnell, 
" whom the rest respect ; " and he praises their 
firm Catholicism. But the vast armies spoken of 
by O'Donnell's confessor as being in the field shrink 
woefully in the report of the experienced soldier. 
The chiefs could raise, it appeared, 6000 foot and 
1200 horse; and when they took the field they 
carried provisions with them sufficient for the time 
they intended to be absent from home. No artil- 
lery, moreover, could be landed at any of their ports 
or be sent inland, in consequence of the boggy 
nature of the soil, and the provisions available were 
only sufficient for the native Irish. In another 
report, given by the ensigns who accompanied the 
expedition, full particulars are given of the number 
of men to be raised by each chief, and the state of 
the strong towns in the hands of the English.^ 

1 The following paragraphs in the report of the ensigns is curious. 
After summing up the total number of the rebel Lords' forces (5900 
foot and 1080 horse), the report continues : — " The men are now spread 
about the territories of their Lords, and have darts, bows and arrows, 
shields like ours, and others like Hungarian bucklers. They have no 
muskets and few harr[uebuses. Their food is butter and milk ; but even 



PHILIP AND THE IRISH 187 

Whilst these minute details were being discussed 
and weighed laboriously by Philip at the Escorial, 
news came from England through Flanders and 
France, at first vague and then with increasing 
definiteness, which struck the Spaniards with terror. 
When Drake had finally sailed away in the previous 
autumn, the way seemed clear for, at least, some 
show of force being sent to Ireland, although there 
was never any chance in that year (1596) of any 
great expedition, such as the English feared.^ But 
in the fight off the mouth of the Tagus between the 
ship with Cisneros on board and the English vessel, 
two boats' crews of the latter had got adrift and 
were captured by the Spaniards. When they were 

this is not to be bouglit, as such is not their custom ; and if people go 
from one part of the country to another, they receive butter and milk 
for their sustenance from the natives of the country they go to. The 
people are all Catholics, and they show signs of being able to handle 
weapons well. They seem a well-disposed sort of people. It is im- 
possible to travel on the land, as you sink up to the knees, but it is all 
land that may be cultivated. In the forty leagues we have travelled 
(i.e. from Mayo to Donegal) we have not seen a single tree, and it is 
impossible to transport artillery.'' It may be added that these reports, 
which were evidently written by men more accustomed to wield pikes 
than pens, are excessively illiterate, and in places almost unintelligible. 
(Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar.) 

1 The reports of the Venetian ambassador in Madrid to the Doge 
throughout the autumn and winter of 1595 give details of the naval 
preparations in Spain, In October he says that thirty ships are ready, 
some say for Brittany or Ireland, but most likely to go after Drake in 
South America. On November 17 he writes that the shipyards in 
Biscay and Andalusia are busy building new ships. " it is certain 
that his Majesty intends to have on the ocean next year a larger fleet 
than at any previous time, except in 1588 ... If it does nothing 
else, this preparation, by keeping the Queen of England in alarm, will 
compel her to think of her own defences rather than ... of molest- 
ing others." " There are thirty armed transports in Lisbon and Seville 
to be sent to hold Drake in check." This squadron of twenty-five ships 
sailed from Lisbon on the 2nd January 1596. 



1 88 TREASON AND PLOT 

questioned by Count Portalegre in Lisbon, the 
English sailors confessed that the Queen's fleet 
of lOO ships was assembled when they had left 
London two months previously, but they knew not 
its destination. Philip had later news than this, 
and he also had heard of the gathering of a great 
fleet in England, evidently destined to do him 
injury, though at what point he could not guess. 
His naval advisers soothed him with the idea that 
it was already too late in the season for the English 
to come to Spain that year ; but Count Portalegre, 
when he sent to the King the intelligence he had 
gathered from the English prisoners, not only ex- 
pressed his fears that the Spanish expedition could 
not be safely sent to Ireland that year, notwithstand- 
ing the vehement pledges given to Tyrone, but he 
conveys his apprehension of something worse. 

"We are now at the loth June, and it is getting 
late in the season, considering how early the English 
came in the year '89 ; and I do not see much sign of 
apprehension of that which I am very anxious about, 
more anxious than ever I was in my life about any- 
thing. Notwithstanding reasons of State and pru- 
dence, that persuade others that it is impossible that 
the English fleet should come to the coast of Spain, 
I have convinced myself that it is extremely proba- 
ble that it may come to prevent the final union of 
your Majesty's fleet by cruising about the route, and 
burning whatever it may find unprotected between 
Viana and Lisbon. As for this bar (i.e. Lisbon), 
they could act according to the intelligence they 
received of the city and ships, and of the flotillas 
which are expected from all parts. And even if 



ALARM IN SPAIN 189 

your Majesty's fleet succeed in assembling, they 
might embarrass it greatly, and this, perhaps, might 
satisfy them for this summer. It might be all 
frustrated if what your Majesty promised should be 
provided could arrive here : but before it can arrive, 
the cause for alarm vrill have passed/' ^ 

This letter is a good specimen of the utter paraly- 
sis which fell upon the Spaniards in the face of 
English naval movements, and of the disastrous 
effects of Philip's slow methods. Long before he 
had discussed and considered the infinite pros and 
cons of the requisites demanded, much less before 
he could laboriously furnish the resources necessary, 
either for attack or defence, his opponents had 
anticipated him, and his action and expenditure 
were wasted. This is exactly what happened in the 
summer of 1596. Whilst his officers were reporting 
and inquiring in Ireland, whilst the priests and 
others were sending false assurances to the Irish 
chiefs that the long-delayed support should at once 
be sent from Spain, Philip's officers, trammelled by 
his blighting centralising system, were slowly, 
and with ill success, endeavouring to collect in 
half-a-dozen different ports the vessels and stores 

1 The Venetian ambassador in Madrid wrote to the Doge, June ii, 
saying that Count Portalegre had reported the great alarm caused in 
Lisbon by the English naval preparations. "A sharp answer was 
returned from here that the governor liad exaggerated the alarm ; for 
the conquest of Calais, the death of Drake, and the dispersion of his 
fleet, would undoubtedly cause the Queen to change her plans ; and 
that it was his (Portalegre' s) duty to keep up the courage of the popu- 
lation, rather than by lending them his ear, to frighten them more at 
mere shadows " (Venetian Calendar). The letter from Portalegre, 
which I have quoted in the text, was evidently the reply to this 
reproof. 



I90 TREASON AND PLOT 

necessary to form an auxiliary expedition.^ Before 
one part of the munitions could be got ready, the 
part already collected went rotten : men deserted as 
fast as they were levied, for they were no longer 
buoyed up by the idea of their invulnerability against 
the heretics or of the invincible sacredness of their 
cause. In plain truth, they were afraid of the 
English. In all ranks disillusion and demoralisa- 
tion were becoming general. The King was a mere 
name now, seen by no one, and already sick to 
death. He had with forty years of ceaseless toil 
woven around himself and his people the endless 
spider's web of despotism ; filaments that had grown 
into cables centred in the paper-choked closet of a 
gloomy recluse, stifling all initiative, restricting all 
activity, and dooming the nation to atrophy and 
decay. 

The alarming and exaggerated news of Spanish 
preparations, and the efforts of the French and of 
Essex's party in England,^ had at length brought 

^ The Venetian ambassador in Spain wrote on i5tli January that 
loo new vessels were being built in Biscay, Galicia, Lisbon, and 
Seville ; but he doubted whether the result would correspond with the 
effort, "for the first flush of preparations in Spain usually promises 
much more than is eventually accomplished." In February he reported 
that the King of Spain had abandoned his scheme for an attack upon 
England, since the Queen has now settled her Irish and English 
affairs. " He is well aware that neither in Corunna nor in Flanders 
are there sufficient troops to harass the English, even if they could 
effect a landing." In April the same ambassador wrote that the 
" preparations for a fleet are not being pushed on as fast as they might 
be, or would be, if there was any idea of using a fleet at once." 

2 Sir Francis Vere, the English commander in Flanders, who was an 
" Essex " man, wrote to the Earl on the gth March. " You were pleased 
to acquaint me with a purpose you had to draw her Majesty, the 
French King, and the States into a firm league. . . . There is no so 
ready way in the world to terrify and ruin the great adversary." At the 



CHANGE OF ENGLISH POLICY 191 

Elizabeth to consent to an aggressive policy. Vera 
was authorised to obtain the aid of a naval con- 
tingent from the States, and once more Plymouth 
and the Thames were alive with the fitting out of 
a great fleet. Henry IV. having to a great extent 
conciliated the Leaguers, had declared a national 
war upon Spain, and was now at close grip with 
the enemy. He had strained his own resources 
to the utmost, and in vain both he and his ally 
Essex had sought, by cajolery and threats, to obtain 
more effective assistance from England, especially 
on the coast of Picardy, where English interests 
were closely touched. Philip, on the other hand, 
as will be recollected, had been fortunate in the 
arrival of his treasure fleet, thanks to the delay in 
the departure of Drake in the summer of 1595, and 
had also contracted a large new loan with the 
Fuggers ; and much of the money had been spent 
in providing for the new Governor of Flanders, the 
Archduke Albert, a powerful army, with which, as 
it was thought, to relieve La Fere from its pro- 
tracted siege by Henry's forces. 

When a few weeks earlier Sir Henry Unton had 
given Henry Elizabeth's message, asking for Calais 
as a pledge for her further help, the great Bearnais 
replied in a rage that he had as lief be bitten by a 



same time (Marcli 1 596) Elizabeth and Burghley were made to believe 
by forged letters that Spain was making approaches to Henry IV. 
She sent young Palavicini to France to inquire secretly if this was 
true. His informant in France was one of the Essex-Lopez gang, who 
told him, in reply to his questions, " that it was true that the Spaniard 
was trying to come to terms, but that Henry was little inclined to do 
so unless he were driven by force. The real way to keep him (Henry) 
was to assist him vigorously" (Venetian Calendar). 



192 TREASON AND PLOT 

dog as be scratched by a cat, and would prefer the 
Spaniards in Calais to the English. He spoke more 
truly than he thought at the time, for the relief of 
La Fere was only a feint ; and early in April the 
King learnt to his dismay that the Spaniards had 
suddenly turned aside, marched upon Calais, and 
had already stormed the outworks of the town. 
This was threatening news indeed for England, 
Whilst Elizabeth was haggling, the Spaniards had 
captured a port which commanded her narrow seas, 
and the Spanish army in Flanders was in sight of 
her own shores. As soon as the news came to 
England of Calais's danger, a hasty levy of men was 
made in London and hurried to Dover for embarka- 
tion under Essex ; for the citadel of Calais still held 
out, and relief was possible. No sooner were the 
men on board, and the young Earl burning to bring 
them into action, than a courier galloped in from 
the Queen counter-ordering the expedition. Essex 
was frantic, but raved and prayed in vain. Almost 
within his sight the next day, 14th April, the citadel 
of Calais fell ; and Elizabeth found that she had 
overreached herself. Henry made the most of it, 
and sent a special embassy to remonstrate wath her 
upon the effect produced by her avaricious demand 
for Calais in return for her aid ; and she was, 
though greatly to her dislike, obliged to make a 
new treaty with France, by which her contingent 
was to be increased, and Henry was bound never 
to make peace with Spain without the consent of 
England — a provision which he broke as soon as it 
suited him. 

This untoward capture of Calais by the Spaniards 



ESSEX AND SPAIN 193 

made it more necessary than ever now that the 
power of Spain should again be broken at sea ; and 
the policy which Hawkins, Drake, and Ealegh had 
always advocated, of attack at sea rather than 
defence on shore, was forced by circumstances upon 
Elizabeth and Burghley, though they faced it with 
much hesitancy and fickleness. We have seen in 
Count Portalegre's letter to Philip early in June 
the alarm which the English preparations caused in 
Spain. The slow and ineffective fitting out of small 
squadrons in different ports, Ferrol, Corunna, San- 
tander, Lisbon, and Cadiz, in order that they might 
ultimately form a junction, was rendered necessary 
by the paucity of supplies and the difiiculties of 
transporting great quantities of stores to one centre, 
but it always exposed Philip's fleets to be destroyed 
piecemeal, either in their ports, or on their way to 
the rendezvous ; and this was a danger against which 
it was difficult for the Spaniards to provide, as they 
had not sufficient force to protect adequately all 
threatened points, and rapid concentration was 
impossible. This was well known to English sea- 
men, and they had constantly urged the Queen to 
strike at the strength of her enemy in what they 
saw was the most effectual way. But her lifelong 
policy was to take a middle course and hold the 
balance whilst extremists fought ; and no sooner 
had Essex persuaded her to authorise an offensive 
expedition against Spain than she altered her mind. 
Through February, March, and April of 1596, whilst 
the Irish chiefs were praying Philip for immediate 
aid, and Spanish emissaries were flitting backwards 
and forwards to Donegal, the hot fit followed the 

N 



194 TREASON AND PLOT 

cold with maddening alternation in Elizabeth's 
counsels. She was willing to cripple her foe, but 
she let " I dare not, wait upon I would ; " for, she 
argued : Suppose my fleet should miss the Spaniards, 
or any large portion of them, what would become 
of me and my realm, what would become of Pro- 
testantism, if another Armada should approach whilst 
my own ships were far away on the coast of Spain ? 
Essex in his rage sometimes forgot the respect 
due to his sovereign lady, and this gave rise to 
fresh wrangles and subsequent self-abasement of 
the spoilt, ill-disciplined favourite. '* The Queen," 
wrote one of Essex's secretaries to Antony Bacon,^ 
"is daily in change of humour about my Lord's 
voyage, and yesterday almost resolute to stay it, 
using very hard terms of my Lord's wilfulness, 
inasmuch as the wisest was fain to use his wisest 
reasons to appease and satisfy her;" and Essex 
himself, almost in despair, said, " I have racked 
my wits to get this commission, and my means . . . 
to carry it through, as they say. I will either go 
through with it now, or become a monk at an hour's 
warning." ^ 

It ended by the Queen's allowing the expedition 
to be prepared, whilst she bound the commanders 
on all sides with limitations and restrictions. To 
curb the impetuosity of Essex and temper his want 
of naval experience, she associated with him in the 
command the cold, eklerly Lord Admiral Howard, 
at which arrangement both of them impotently 

^ Reynolds to Bacon, Bacon MSS., Lambeth. Palace, vol. Dclvii. . 
2 Ibid. 



THE ATTACK ON CADIZ 195 

fumed and chafed ; ^ and she strictly laid down that 
the objects to be aimed at were " the taking and 
destruction of the King of Spain's ships and maga- 
zines, and the intercepting of the East Indian 
carracks and the fleet from the West Indies." 
When her instructions were asked for in the case 
of any " rich town " being captured, the Queen was 
quite scandalised at the suggestion of such a thing. 
The object was not conquest, but to strike a blow at 
Philip's navy, which should effectually prevent him 
from sending powerful aid to Ireland, or threatening 
Protestant England with another Catholic Armada. 

When, at length, the four squadrons were assem- 
bled at Plymouth, not without much delay on the 
part of the Thames contingent,^ Essex and Howard 
found themselves in command of a fleet consisting 
of seventeen Queen's ships, seventy-six freighted 
armed merchantmen, mostly used for transport, and 

^ A very characteristic letter on this point was written by Essex to 
Cecil on the 24th May, on the eve of his sailing. He and Howard had 
written a joint letter of farewell to the Queen, and he wrote : — "Sir, 
if her Majesty do find fault with i.he cutting out of a piece of the 
sheet wherein our joint letter is written, her unruly admiral (i.e. 
Howard, who being a baron, was obliged to sign his name after Essex, 
who was an earl) must be punished, who cut out my name, because he 
would ha\ e none so high as himself. We are now abroad, and do see 
all men bestir themselves to leave the shore. Here is such joy in all 
the fleet, both of soldiers and mariners, English and Dutch, as it would 
please her Majesty to see the effects of her own work" (Hatfield 
Papers, vol. iv.). 

2 This was specially under Ralegh's organisation, and Essex's friends 
threw upon Ralegh the whole blame of the delay. It was not his 
fault, however ; the service was most unpopular, and especially in and 
about London ; and "as soon as we press men one day tney run away 
another, and say they will not serve." See the writer's " Life of Sir 
Walter Ralegh." So general was the d safFection in the fleet that 
Essex was forced to hang several of the soldiers on Plymouth Hoe just 
before sailing (" Voyage to Cadiz," Hakluyt). 



196 TREASON AND PLOT 

a Dutch squadron of twenty-four vessels, besides 
pinnaces and small craft. This fleet, with 9000 
soldiers on board, sailed out of Plymouth Sound on 
the 3rd June 1596; and so well had the secret of 
its destination been kept, that, as we have seen, at a 
similar date (rrth June) Count Portalegre placed it 
on record that he alone of the Spanish officers 
feared the coming of the English at all that year. 
Even those who at an earlier date had looked for 
the possible sailing of an English squadron had 
feared rather that it might attack the ships in Ferrol 
or the Tagus than repeat Drake's famous swoop 
upon Cadiz in 1587, so that when, on the morning 
of the 20th June, the great combined fleet of 
English and Dutch ships anchored ofi" Cadiz, panic 
supreme and uncontrolled seized upon the city. 

Under the shelter of the sea-wall there lay 
defending the entrance to the harbour seventeen 
of Philip's finest galleys, and inside the port there 
were six mighty galleons, three of the famous 
treasure frigates, two strong argosies, the three 
flagships of the Mexican fleet, and forty great 
Indiamen loading for the outward voyage. The 
first decision arrived at by the English joint com- 
manders was in the highest degree unwise and 
dangerous. Their prime object in sailing was, at 
any cost, to cripple Spain's navy. Here they had 
before them huddled in the bay, unable to escape, 
the finest vessels that flew the flag of Castile and 
Aragon ; and Howard and Essex conceived the 
idea, before attacking the ships, of lauding their 
soldiers and assaulting the town. Ralegh, who had 
command of one of the squadrons, returned from 



THE ATTACK ON CADIZ 197 

special service on the other side of the bay just 
as the troops were being disembarked. Hurrying 
on board the flagship, he besought Essex to push 
into the harbour and destroy the shipping before 
anything else was attempted, for if the attack upon 
the town failed the whole force would be imperilled. 
Essex threw the blame upon Howard, whose plan it 
probably was ; but at length the eloquence of Ralegh 
prevailed over both and the plan was altered. 

Thenceforward the only rivalry amongst the 
English commanders was as to who should lead his 
ship into the harbour first. The final choice fell 
upon Ralegh, and at first break of dawn on the 
2 1st June, Sir Walter, on the Warsprite, pushed 
past the galleys that blocked the way, and, deriding 
them as he passed with a fanfare from his ship's 
trumpets, he struck, straight as a hawk at its quarry, 
at the two greatest ships of the Spanish navy, the 
San Felipe and the San Andres ; for on one bloody, 
never-to-be-forgotten day five years before, those two 
giants had done to death his dear friend and kins- 
man. Sir Richard Grenville on the Revenge, and 
Ralegh had sworn never to loose them till their 
stout hulls were worried to future inoffensiveness. 

Of the details of the great fight this is not the 
place to tell.^ How Essex, Ralegh, Lord Thomas 
Howard, and Francis Vere competed with each 
other in their lust for destruction ; how red ruin fell 
upon the towering San Felipe, the San Andres, the 

1 See "The Voyage to Cadiz" in Hakluyt; Ralegh's own account, 
" Relation of the Cadiz Action ;" Fernandez Duro's " Armada Es- 
panola ; " the present writer's " Life of Sir Walter Ralegh," and 
Devereux's " Earls of Essex." 



198 TREASON AND PLOT 

Santo Tomas, and the San Mateo and all the galleys; 
how, in despair, the wretched Spaniards, to escape 
the fire, drowned themselves by hundreds, until, as 
Ralegh wrote, " If any man had a desire to see hell 
itself, it was there most lively figured ; " how the 
forty splendid Indiamen and their precious freights 
all fled to the inner harbour at Puerto Real and 
were burnt by the Spaniards ; and how, finally, Cadiz 
itself, the " pearl of Andalusia," the richest city in 
Spain, was conquered almost without a blow, to be 
submitted to sixteen days of systematic plunder, 
which left her naked, ravaged, and destroyed — all 
this is told in sounding Elizabethan prose by Ralegh 
himself, and has been repeated in stirring story by a 
hundred pens. Our concern in this book is mainly 
to consider the effect of the ruin of Cadiz upon 
Philip's power to force Catholicism directly or in- 
directly upon England. 

During the three hours' fight, in which only eight 
English ships took active part, Spain lost thirteen 
ships of war and seventeen galleys, besides the forty 
great merchantmen, and merchandise worth eleven 
million ducats. What the loot of Cadiz city 
amounted to no one rightly knew ; but great as 
was the material loss suffered by Spain, the loss 
of prestige was infinitely greater. The wretched 
Medina-Sidonia could only look on at the destruc- 
tion afar off, wringing his hands and weeping. He 
had long ago pointed out to the King the utterly 
defenceless state of the city against a sudden attack.^ 

^ On the day after the disaster Medina-Sidonia wrote to the King 
thus : " This is shameful ! I said how necessary it was to send me men 
and money, and I have never received even an answer from your Majesty. 



EFFECT OF THE CADIZ ACTION 199 

Like all other representations of a like nature to 
Philip, it had to run the gauntlet of infinite pro- 
crastination, consideration, and inquiry, often to be 
shelved and forgotten. Philip's resources, great as 
they were, were a mere drop in the ocean of his 
requirements. With such a system as his, where 
one sick old man,^ writing and reading day and 
night, tried to sway the universe with his pen, 
waste and inefficiency were inevitable, and this 
terrible blow of Cadiz was the natural result. The 
disaster was even greater in a moral sense than the 
loss of the Armada, because it proved to the satis- 
faction of the superstitious people, either that the 
Lord was fighting on the side of the heretic, or that 
the powers of darkness were stronger than the powers 
of light. 

But whilst the Spaniards at large, with Oriental 
fatalism, were resigning themselves to the inevitable, 
and the English were bickering over their loot in 
the intervals of self-glorification, the slow, crippled, 
white-haired, little man in his cell at the Escorial 
had learned nothing from defeat and failure. He 
was, he thought, on the side of God, and if the 
Most High for His good pleasure ordained that 
temporary disaster should fall upon His legions, it 
was only that the final victory should be the greater, 
and that His servants should be purified by trial for 
the ultimate glory that would surely come to them. 

So now I am at my wits' end, and can only stand and await your 
Majesty's orders." 

^ Philip was chronically ill of gout with complications at this time. 
In April and May of this year, 1596, he was thought to be dying and 
all hope was abandoned by his physicians. See the details in Nani's 
Letters, Venetian Calendar. 



200 TREASON AND PLOT 

There was no defeat but death for such a man as 
this, and the day after he learnt of the catastrophe 
of Cadiz saw him calmly plodding and planning the 
new preparations that should carry aid to insurgent 
Ireland, and in good time make England Catholic 
again, a fit ally for faithful Spain. 



CHAPTEK VII 

Mission of Lindsay to Rome — Father Jolin Cecil and Pury Ogilvie in 
Rome — Their voyage to Spain — Address of the English Catholic 
irreconcilables to Philip — The advice of Father Persons — Pre- 
parations in Lisbon for the Irish expedition — Strength of the 
armament — Failure and return to Spain — Meeting of the Irish 
chiefs with Cobos in the Monastery of Donegal — A new truce with 
Tyrone. 

At the end of chapter iii. we left Walter Lindsay, 
Lord Balgarys, the Laird of Ladyland, Father Cecil, 
and Matthew Semple, fruitlessly praying the King 
of Spain to send assistance to the Scottish Catholic 
nobles, the leaders of whom were already in exile. 
This was in the autumn of 1595, and the reason 
for Philip's bland irresponsiveness to their cry is 
obvious to any one who notes the tone of their 
petitions. When the resources of delay had been 
exhausted, and the Scottish emissaries intimated 
that their patience was at an end, Philip adopted 
his invariable course in such cases, and politely in- 
formed them that, as the objects of the Scottish 
nobles were exclusively directed to the advancement 
of the Catholic faith, the Pope was the person first 
to be applied to. The King would recommend 
them to his ambassador in E-ome, the Duke of 
Sessa, who would forward their suit with his Holi- 
ness, and when the Pope had decided how much 
money he would contribute, he (Philip) would con- 
sider how and to what extent he could help them. 



202 TREASON AND PLOT 

The emissaries did not know it, but this course of 
procedure made it absolutely certain that Philip 
had no intention of making the Scottish Catholics 
his principal instruments for gaining England ; but 
they took his message in all sincerity, and, late in 
the year, Balgarys, Ladyland, Hugh Barclay, and 
Father Cecil sailed separately from Barcelona for 
Italy, the priest being entrusted with the principal 
part of the negotiation. 

They must have arrived early in December in 
Rome, but as Father Cecil was ill, he did not pre- 
sent Philip's letter to the Duke of Sessa until the 
3rd January 1596. Although the ambassador had 
not at that time received any explanatory despatches 
from Madrid, he knew his master's mind well enough 
to understand what was required of him. He, too, 
was full of sympathy for the Scottish Catholics, who 
were so anxious to benefit their religion exclusively, 
but it took six weeks for him to obtain for Father 
Cecil an audience of the Pope. When at length 
the audience took place, on the eve of Cecil's depar- 
ture, the English priest laid before his Holiness the 
prayers of the Scottish nobles, and the good wishes 
for them expressed by the King of Spain. "They 
pretended to nothing else, he said, but restoring 
the Catholic religion in their country, and deliver- 
ing their King from the heretics, by whom he was 
oppressed.' Clement VIH. was very far from being 
a fool, and understood perfectly well that Philip 
would never lift a finger to help a party that pro- 
fessed such objects as this. " He was very well 
satisfied," he drily told Father Cecil, " of the inten- 
tions of the Catholic Lords, and also of the King of 



SCOTTISH ENVOYS IN ROME 203 

Spain's expressed intention of helping them, with- 
out respect to his own particular interest. He was 
very well contented with so holy a resolution of his 
Catholic Majesty. But he had great fear of the 
delays of Spain, with which they wearied the world ; 
besides, the King of Scots had beguiled him (the 
Pope), and had communicated to the Queen of Eng- 
land the intelligence that he had had with him." 
This was as far as Clement VIII. would go ; and 
to his nephew, Cardinal Aldobrandino, and to the 
"protector" of Scottish affairs. Cardinal Gaetano, he 
deputed the task of politely but firmly making Cecil 
understand that not a penny would be contributed 
to their enterprise by the Pope. If the Scottish 
Catholic emissaries had understood the position, 
they must have seen that their clients' case was 
hopeless of effectual aid from the moment they 
talked about their desire being solely to benefit 
their religion, and by inference included in their 
programme the conversion of James. 

Almost simultaneously with the arrival of Bal- 
garys, Barclay, and Cecil in Rome, another Scots- 
man appeared there with a still more significant 
mission. Although the leaders of the Catholic 
nobility had been banished or forbidden to leave 
their estates, the sincerity of the King of Scots in 
his Protestantism was still gravely doubted by the 
Kirk. The Covenant was solemnly renewed, and 
the Church Assembly joined with the Puritan towns 
and gentry in formally requesting James to confis- 
cate the estates of the Catholic Lords (March 1596). 
This was most unpalatable to the King. It was, 
in his view, vital that he should retain the goodwill 



204 TREASON AND PLOT 

of his Catholic subjects, or they might at a critical 
moment effectually oppose his succession to the 
English throne. He was, moreover, profoundly 
moved by the open advocacy in Father Persons' 
book of the right of the Infanta to succeed, in 
consequence of his (James's) heresy.^ This book, 
written by a leading Jesuit, known to be in the 
confidence of Philip, was avowedly a blow at James's 
claims ; and now that the banished Scottish Lords 
were, as he knew, appealing to the Spanish King for 
help, the most unfortunate thing that could happen, 
in James's opinion, was that his Protestant subjects, 
and Elizabeth between them, should sever the last 
hopes in him entertained by the Catholics. 

In this dilemma James took a thoroughly character- 
istic course. On the 2nd January 1596 he published 
a proclamation to his subjects calling upon them 
vigorously to unite with England to resist the 
threatened invasion of the Spaniards,^ " the common 

^ The Venetian ambassador in France wrote to the Doge, March 23, 
1 596 : " The King of Scotland is under arms, more by sea than by 
land, as he is disgusted with the King of Spain for the protection he 
gives to the rebel Scots ; also because of a book published in Spain, 
wherein all claims to the crown of England are discussed, and the 
King of Scotland is entirely excluded, the King of Spain and the 
Infanta both being put before him " (Venetian Calendar). How dis- 
tasteful this open advocacy of the Infanta's claim was, not only to 
Englishmen, but also to the Pope and all Catholics but the adherent of 
Spain quand meme, is seen in an extract from a letter written by Dr. 
GifFord to Throgmorton. " I have made an abstract of Parsons' book, 
and have given it to the Nuncio (in Flanders), who is mad at Parsons, 
and bade me write to the Bishop of Cassano, and assure him that 
Parsons had ruined himself, and that the Pope would detest his be- 
haviour, and that he could never have done anything more disgustable 
to the Pope" (Hatfield Papers, vol. vi.). 

2 The scare of Spanish preparations was at this time greater in Scot- 
land than in England. W. Colville, writing to Bowes, January 17, 
1 596, says, " We think verily here that you shall be swallowed up this 



JAMES'S DIPLOMACY 205 

enemy of both nations," and thus won from Elizabeth 
the rare reward of her unstinted praise. " I must 
tel you," she wrote to him, " that I cannot imagin 
how you could by any more glorious menes set out 
your care for your land, your love to your neighbours, 
and your hate to such wrongful invaders, than with 
your pen and charge to your subjects you have 
uttered. ... In me hit bathe set a deepe impression 
of a cousin-like zeal, that mixeth not his loss with' 
her decay, and joyeth not that she should perish." 1 
Having thus disarmed Elizabeth, James smiled once 
more on the banished lords (except Bothwell, his 
personal enemy, whom he never forgave), and soon 
Huntly, Errol, and Angus crept back to Scotland, 
and were allowed to go unmolested to their homes. 
The Kirk raved in vain, and took the extreme and 
even disloyal course of appointing a '* Standing 
Council," which should control the King and Govern- 
ment. Black thundered sedition from the pulpit of 
St. Andrews as violently as Knox himself would 
have done in like circumstances ; but James, with 
the Catholics at his bidding, and the Queen of 
England well disposed, could afford to brave the 
ministers, and by the end of the year 1596 he had 
crushed the malcontents by force of arms and 
humbled the power of the Kirk. 

But whilst he was thus conciliating Elizabeth with 
his proclamation against Spanish aggression and 

summer insomuch as the preparation of the Spaniard is held to be out 
of doubt ; that the French King and Philip will accord, and the States 
of Holland will return to him. So they think you shall have no 
friendship but from hence," i.e. England (Letter-book of John Colville, 
Banna tyne Club). 

^ Letters of Elizabeth and James .(Camden Society). 



2o6 TREASON AND PLOT 

curbing the " ministers," he was cleverly and secretly 
carrying on an extraordinary intrigue which was 
intended to secure his accession to the English 
throne, happen what might, and to bind the 
Catholics to him strongly, whilst frustrating the evil 
result to him that might follow the appeal of Huntly 
and his followers to Philip and the Pope. The 
man whom he chose as his agent was John Ogilvie, 
Laird of Pury, who, five years before, had been 
originally nominated to the unsuccessful mission 
eventually entrusted to George Ker. Pury Ogilvie, 
as he was called, had an extremely crooked task to 
perform and he made it more crooked still. He was 
first — in the autumn of 1595 — to go to Flanders. 
There were many amongst the fugitives there known 
to be unfavourable to the Spanish-Jesuit party, and 
the publication of Persons' book had alienated many 
more. Ogilvie was to approach Paget and his 
friends of this party, and solemnly assure them that 
James was really a Catholic.^ 

The next step was for Ogilvie to make friends 
with the Pope's Nuncio in Flanders, Cardinal Mal- 

1 This is what Dr. Gifford, one of the " patriotic " refugees, wrote at 
the time. " Here is a proper lord of Scotland come over, called Ogilvy, 
who saieth to Paget in secret, and assureth him, the King of Scots is 
well inclined, aud if he may see men in the field he will venture all to 
be free. He (Ogilvy) will be shortly at Rome to talk with the Pope. 
The wife of the King of Scots is now certainly reconciled {i.e. to the 
Church of Rome). This is a profound secret, but 113 positively 
assures Paget that such is the case" (Hatfield Papers, vol. vi.). There 
is no doubt that the reason why James took this step of conciliating 
the anti-Spanish refugees at this juncture was the rumour then current 
that a compromise was under discussion by which Arabella Stuart 
might be adopted by general consent as Elizabeth's heir. The Welsh 
and English anti-Spanish refugees were known to be inclined to favour 
this solution, as it would obviate the unpopular necessity of subjecting 
England to the rule of a Scotsman. 



PURY OGILVIE'S MISSION 207 

vasia, who, as we have seen by the note on page 204, 
was ill-disposed towards Spain. Ogilvie told the 
Cardinal that he had been sent by King James to 
procure aid from the Pope and the Italian princes 
to defend himself against his rebellious subjects, and 
to procure the succession to the throne of England. 
He (James) was desirous of receiving instruction 
and of being converted to the Catholic religion. But 
as most of his rebels were Catholics, who were in 
favour of making the King of Spain also King of 
England and Scotland, he, James, was obliged to 
temporise with heretics and " politicians " in order 
to support himself against so potent an adversary 
as the King of Spain, who, under the pretence of 
favouring the Catholics, endeavoured to make him- 
self master of those kingdoms, which would not be 
expedient either for the Pope or the Italian princes. 
But if they, the Italians, would not help him, he 
would be obliged to put himself under the protec- 
tion of the King of Spain, and make the best terms 
with him that he could. ^ The Nuncio, naturally 
taken in with this frank avowal, expressed in no 
measured terms his opinion of the ambition and 
insincerity of the Spanish King, and Ogilvie care- 
fully treasured up in his memory the unfavourable 
language used by the Italian Churchman. 

It was not to be expected that all this intimacy 
between the Scottish envoy and the anti-Spanish 
party in Flanders should escape the eyes of such as 
Father Holt and Hugh Owen ; and when Ogilvie 

^ A series of letters, intercenteil by the Frencli and sent to the Earl 
of Essex, relating to this exiraordinarily complicated intrigue, are quoted 
at length in Birch. 



2o8 TREASON AND PLOT 

sought an interview with Secretary Ibarra, Philip's 
Minister in Flanders, he found extremely black looks 
to greet him. Nothing abashed, the Scotsman en- 
tered upon his negotiation. He had been sent, he 
said, by the King of Scots to seek a close under- 
standing with the King of Spain against England. 
James was sincerely desirous of becoming a Catholic, 
and of avenging the murder of his mother and the 
Queen of England's ill-treatment of himself. He 
was ready to concur now in the extirpation of all 
heresy from England, Scotland, and Ireland ; to 
enter into an offensive and defensive league with 
Philip against all the world, and immediately to 
make war upon England ; to become reconciled to 
his Catholic nobles ; to recall all Scotsmen in the 
service of heretics abroad ; to receive and protect all 
Catholics from England who might take refuge in 
Scotland; to furnish the King of Spain with a con- 
tingent of 10,000 Scottish troops; and, as a pledge 
for his sincerity, he volunteered to deliver his son 
and heir into the keeping of the King of Spain. In 
return for all this James would ask Philip not to 
oppose in any way his accession to the English 
throne, but that he should, on the contrary, provide 
him with an army of 12,000 men whilst the war 
with England lasted, and give him a subvention of 
500,000 ducats with which to commence the war ; 
and that he should in future only treat with James 
himself, and not with the Scottish Catholic nobles 
or their representatives. 

This was so surprising to Ibarra that he appears 
to have expressed some disbelief in the sincerity of 
James's offers, seeing how intimate Ogilvie had been 



COMPLICATED DIPLOMACY 209 

since his arrival in Flanders with those who were 
known to be in opposition to Spanish views for 
England and Scotland. Ogilvie then seems to have 
taken a most extraordinary course, which can only 
be explained by the assumption that he was a young 
man of extreme levity and untrustworthiness, deter- 
mined at any sacrifice to feather his own nest. His 
mission, he told Ibarra, was a mere farce ; the King 
and some heretics and " politicians " had really sent 
him "to rouse up some people's spleen, and make 
them friends to the King of Scotland against the 
King of Spain ; " which meant, of course, to attract 
wavering Catholics from the Jesuit party to the 
opposite side. For that purpose he, Ogilvie, had 
*' conferred with Paget, Gifford, and other English- 
men of that herd ; but it was all partiality and 
passion, and the King of Scotland was a heretic." 
But, continued Ogilvie, he himself was a true Catho- 
lic, and if the King of Spain would give him a 
pension, " he would manage affairs the contrary way 
from what the heretics and politicians aimed at." 
This style of negotiation was much more in Ibarra's 
line, and he promised the respectable Ogilvie 100 
ducats a month, with which the Scottish envoy went 
on his way to Italy rejoicing. 

His next stages were Venice and Florence, and to 
both the Doge and the Grand Duke he spoke in the 
same tone as he had to the Nuncio. The Italian 
princes, including the Pope, were extremely jealous 
of Spain, and their replies to Ogilvie's charming 
were all to the same effect. They could spare no 
money or help to the King of Scots themselves, but 
they fully recognised that the ambition of Philip 

o 



2IO TREASON AND PLOT 

was not to forward Catholicism so much as to en- 
sure his own supremacy over Christendom. So 
far Ogilvie's efforts were admirably calculated to 
alienate Catholics in general, and especially English 
Catholics, from the Jesuit-Spanish party by pro- 
moting the expression of belief in the political and 
ambitious objects of Philip ; but when the envoy 
arrived in Rome (December 1595), he found himself 
in the midst of the other Scottish intrigue in favour 
of Huntly and the Catholic Lords, which was being 
carried on by Father Cecil, Lord Balgarys, and Hugh 
Barclay, and the King of Scotland's emissary was 
obliged somewhat to alter his tone. 

He brought letters from the Scottish Catholic 
Lords to their envoy Cecil, who soon wormed him- 
self into the confidence of Ogilvie, and promptly 
carried to the Duke of Sessa, the Spanish ambas- 
sador in Rome, the gist of their conversations. 
Ogilvie himself only visited the ambassador secretly 
at night, in order, apparently, that his communi- 
cations with the Italians at the Vatican might not 
be hampered by any open show of a friendship with 
Spain. To the Duke of Sessa and to Father Cecil 
he told the same story as he had to the Nuncio 
in Flanders (p. 207), but with the addition that all 
the Italians were badly disposed towards Spain, and 
from them nothing could be expected, the inference 
being that James must therefore turn exclusively 
to Spain. The Spanish ambassador was quite eager 
to confirm this view of the question, and tried his 
best to hurry Ogilvie away to Spain to propose his 
treaty. The Italians, he assured him, had no money 
to give to the Scots, and the talk of the King of 
Spain's being angry with James was all nonsense. 



A TANGLED SKEIN 211 

Philip's one object, said his ambassador, was to 
extirpate heresy everywhere, and not, as the Italians 
asserted, to make himself monarch of the world. 
If James would become a Catholic he would have 
nothing to fear from Spain. 

This was in January and February 1596, and in 
the meanwhile Cecil, Balgarys, and Barclay were 
losing patience. Philip had promised them his 
decision as to the help he would give to the 
Scottish Catholics when they had arrived in Rome, 
but no letter came from Spain, and the envoys, in 
despair, were anxious to return to Flanders. But 
they deeply distrusted the sincerity of James and 
the meaning of Ogilvie's embassy, and to have 
retired from the field, leaving the King's envoy in 
possession, would have been unwise ; so Father 
Cecil set to work deliberately to discredit him in 
the eyes of the Spanish ambassador. Ogilvie, in 
conversation with Father Cecil, had confessed that 
James was of no particular religion, but would pro- 
fess anything that tended to his advantage. He 
also let slip, according to Cecil, that James suspected 
that Elizabeth was arranging with the Bearnais 
(Henry IV.) to poison or divorce the wife of the latter 
in order that he might marry Arabella Stuart and 
succeed to the English throne ; and again, that if 
she (Elizabeth) found herself assailed by Spain, she 
would appeal to the Pope and embrace Catholicism. 
This talk was of course ridiculous, and was most 
probably invented by Cecil to blacken Ogilvie. At 
all events, it puzzled the Duke of Sessa, who thought 
it might infer that Ogilvie had come to Rome " with 
some artful design" to the detriment of Spain, and 
both he and Cecil did their best to persuade him to 



212 TREASON AND PLOT 

proceed into Philip's dominions. At the same time, 
both Cecil and Balgarys clamoured more persistently 
than ever that Philip should send an expedition 
to aid the Scottish Catholics. The Pope now, they 
said, could not object, for the King of Scots himself 
had claimed to be a Catholic, anxious for liberation 
from his heretic subjects. But unfortunately the 
Scottish envoys were all secretly at issue amongst 
themselves, and Sessa v^as more perplexed than 
ever; for Philip seldom took even his highest 
officers into his confidence, and his ambassador was 
absolutely in the dark as to his real intention. 
Balgarys whispered that Father Cecil was suspected 
to have sold himself to Lord Burghley (which was 
quite true). Cecil accused Balgarys of only trying 
to forward the interests of Lord Huntly, and not 
of the Catholics generally. Barclay secretly urged 
that the Spanish forces should be sent to the west 
of Scotland, whereas Balgarys insisted privately 
behind his colleague's back that they should be 
sent to the Huntly country in the east. Sessa, not 
knowing whether any Spanish force was to go to 
Scotland at all, could only do his best to keep every 
road open by persuading the Pope that if the 
Spanish force did go to Scotland, James would not 
be dethroned if he became a Catholic.^ But, he 

^ There appears to have been some divergence in the Jesuit party at 
this period with regard to James. They had previously been nearly 
unanimous in their strong disbelief in the possibility of his conver- 
sion ; but now some of them, at all events, made an appearance of 
urging him to submit. The explanation probably is that they, no 
more than the rest of the world, knew whether Philip's force would 
or would not make Scotland its base, and they were desirous of 
beguiling James into welcoming, or at least not opposing, it if it 
entered a Scottish port. It is quite certain that Philip and his party 
never really intended to be friendly with James for the latter's benefit. 



PHILIP AND JAMES 213 

cynically adds in his letter to the King, that he 
(Philip) need not wait for the authority of the Pope. 
They none of them (i.e. the Italian Churchmen) 
believe that an expedition will really go, and would 
accept accomplished facts better than listen to pro- 
jects. The Churchmen in this case understood Philip 
better than did his own ambassador. There was 
less prospect of a Spanish force helping the Scottish 
Catholics now than ever before. The slightest 
leaning of James towards Catholicism always effec- 
tually checked that, though whether the King of 
Scots understood that this was the case or not is 
doubtful. At length Sessa obtained some small 
guidance from his master. The Pope was to be 
told that the professed conversion of James was 
only an artful pretence, and the mission of Ogilvie 
had been prompted by the Queen of England her- 
self, in order to raise the jealousy of Catholics 

John Golville, writing to Bowes from Edinburgh at this time (January 
1 596), says : " Evin at the closing up heirof, I was informed that a 
schip was arryved from Flanderis, wharin wes one Elphinston Jesuit 
. . . having with him commission boyth from the Pope and Philip, to 
deall with his Majestic and offer conditions, so he will concur against 
her Majestie (Elizabeth) and the Huguenots. ... In lyk manner two 
other Jesuits have written home to his Majestie persuading his Grace 
timeously to enter in friendship with Spain. . . . Tyrie has \\ritten to 
Lord Hume, schawing that the King's Majestie (Jame>) must, by 
example ot the King of France, either renounce his kingdom or else 
be a Catholic " (Letter-book of John Golville, Bannatyne Club). 

An intercepted letter from the Duke of Sessa to Philip, of February 
20, 1596 (Bacon Papers, Birch), says that Father Tyrie, the Scottish 
Jesuit in Rome, had previously been against Spanish aims, but that he 
had recently altered his opinion. Some letters recently received by 
the General of the Jesuits had convinced him and others that James 
was a heretic, and would always remain so. Sessa thereupon rejoices 
that the Pope's eyes will be opened without any Spanish influence 
appearing. By this we may conclude that the few Scottish Jesuits who 
were anxious to promote the greatness of their own country were 
now being finally overruled by their superiors. 



214 TREASON AND PLOT 

against Spain.^ This was another reason for get- 
ting Ogilvie away on his mission to Spain. He had 
a ship waiting for him at Naples, but no money. 
This difficulty was got over by Sessa's giving him 
a gold chain worth 230 crowns ; and at length, on 
the 27th February, Ogilvie, accompanied by Father 
Cecil, at the urgent request of Sessa, sailed for 
Genoa and Spain. 

They arrived at Toledo in May 1596, and Ogilvie 
presented his letter of credence and a formal memo- 
randum of James's desire for an offensive and defen- 
sive alliance between Scotland and Spain against 
England. On their long voyage Father Cecil had 
possessed himself of all of Ogilvie's instructions, and 
immediately after Ogilvie had presented his memo- 
randum to the King the priest presented another, 
attacking and opposing it article by article.^ It is 
not quite clear what Father Cecil's object was at 
this juncture. He was secretly in the pay of the 
English Government, and was violently opposed — 
though not even Persons himself knew it at the 
time — to the Spanish Jesuit party ; he was, moreover, 
apparently a sincere Catholic, and presumably, like 
the majority of the party, he secretly favoured the 
succession of James to the English throne, either as 
a Catholic or with toleration to Catholicism. His 

^ It will be seen by the note on page 213 that Sessa congratulated him- 
self that the Jesuits would represent this to the Pope before he (Sessa) 
did so, and that this would render the Pope less suspicious of Spanish 
aims. Sessa repeats a saying of Sixtus V. in this connection, and says 
that Clement VIII. has a similar idea. " The Spaniards are Catholics, 
it is true," said Sixtus, "but they believe nobody else is" (Bacon 
Papers, Birch). 

2 The memorandum in full with Cecil's commentary was long after- 
wards obtained and sent to England by Sir Henry Neville. It is 
printed in vol. i. of the Winwood State Papers. 



CECIL ATTACKS OGILVIE 215 

reason for thus bitterly attacking James's professed 
desire for conversion must either have been prompted 
by a v^^ish to see Arabella Stuart or some other Eng- 
lish claimant succeed to Elizabeth on the demise of 
the crown, or v^^hat is more likely, simply to con- 
vince the Spaniards and the Jesuits, for his ov^n 
ends, that he was ardently on their side. In any 
case, his attack upon Ogilvie and his mission was 
violent in the extreme. The envoy was, he said, a 
doubtful Catholic, and was no friend to the Catho- 
lic nobles ; he had associated in Flanders with 
Paget, Gifford, and others of the English "political" 
party, who adhere to the King of Scots regardless 
of religion, and he was not in agreement with the 
"late Cardinal Allen, Father Persons, Father Holt, 
and others who follow the same, and only true 
course, for the conversion of England." His letter 
of credence, he said, was most likely a forgery, or 
else the King's signature has been obtained by some 
" wile." Besides, who, looking at the King of Scots' 
past life, can believe that he would really become 
a Catholic? And so, one point after the other is 
made, showing up the King's monumental insin- 
cerity in all things and the envoy's crooked dealings 
with all men, entirely, no doubt, to the satisfac- 
tion of Philip, for it reflected exactly the opinions 
which justified him in claiming for his daughter the 
crown of England by virtue of James's incurable 
heresy. 

After the usual procrastination, Ogilvie was dis- 
missed with a handsome present and with the vague, 
sanctimonious banalities which, in Philip's language, 
meant No. He was assigned as a travelling com- 
panion homewards a Portuguese gentleman who 



2i6 TREASON AND PLOT 

accompanied him as far as Madrid. But there 
Ogilvie seems, not without reason, to have taken 
fright, and, giving his companion the slip, he turned 
aside and hastened to Barcelona. But he was too 
late, for before he could take ship Secretary Ibarra 
himself arrived in Spain, and told the story how 
Ogilvie had cajoled him to grant him a pension, on 
the promise that he would betray his trust, and yet 
while here in Toledo he had negotiated according to 
the letter of his instructions. This was enough, and 
the unfortunate Laird of Fury was kept in durance 
at Barcelona until it could be learned from James 
whether he had really sent him or not.^ 

Whilst these fruitless and mutually paralysing 
Scottish Catholic intrigues were progressing, matters 
of far more serious moment were being conducted 
with regard to Ireland. The blow of Cadiz must 
have convinced Philip that the crippling of England 
by some means was no longer needed alone for the 
extension of his power, but for the maintenance of 
his very existence as a potentate of the first class. 
We have seen how nerveless had grown his officers 
and people under his blighting sway, but he himself, 
though fast hurrying to his grave, was as fully con- 
vinced as ever of his final invincibility, and of his 
sacred duty to follow without swerving the path 
that had hitherto led him to disaster. In all his 
northern ports shipwrights, riggers, and victuallers 

^ The full particulars of Ogilvie's mission was not known to the 
English Government until three years afterwards, when Sir H. 
Neville, the English ambassador in France, sent to Cecil the memo- 
randum with Father Cecil's reply, 'ihe English Government then 
complained to James, who repudiated Ogilvie and iniprisoned him in 
Edinburgh Castle. See Win wood State Papers, vol. i., and Birch, 
vol. i. 



THE ENGLISH EXTREMISTS 217 

were busy, under the general superintendence of 
Don Martin de Padilla, Adelantado of Castile, in 
fitting out ships for a great expedition. Not a soul 
— except perhaps Don Cristobal de Moura — knew 
what its destination was to be. That was locked in 
the breast of Philip. The Adelantado, and even 
Father Persons, were as ignorant of the King's inten- 
tion as the ragged beggar who moped and mowed 
at the church door. But it was patent to all that 
the great naval preparations were somewhere and 
somewhen to strike a blow at England in revenge 
for Cadiz ; and the English Catholics of the Spanish 
faction were all agog to share in the glory and pros- 
perity that they hoped might come to them from 
Philip's determined ejffort. In Spain itself spirits 
were high, for men knew now that the dreaded 
Drake had been buried fathoms deep in the far 
Atlantic, and that his fleet had been dispersed. 
Confidence in Spanish arms and hearts once more 
began to grow ; Irish and Scottish Catholics, it was 
known, had been begging the King to extend his 
paternal rule over them, and Spaniards were proud 
that other peoples should envy them the possession 
of so sacred a sovereign. But the Englishmen in 
Spain and Flanders looked somewhat askance at all 
this secret hobnobbing with Scots and Irishry, and 
tried to prevent the King's mind from being diverted 
from the main object, namely, the conversion of 
England itself and the exclusion of Scottish James 
at any cost. 

In July 1596 the little body of English stalwarts 
in Spain, under the guidance of Persons, presented 
a petition to the King, asking him to appoint a 



2i8 TREASON AND PLOT 

regular board of Englishmen in Flanders to decide 
upon all English matters. Many nobles in England, 
they said, were willing to negotiate, now that the 
Queen's life could not be many more years pro- 
longed, but there was no authorised body with 
whom they could negotiate ; and even the English 
officers commanding contingents in Flanders would 
willingly come to an understanding for a settlement 
on the Queen's death, if they knew with whom to 
deal. Needless to say that the members recom- 
mended to form the board were Stanley, Owen, 
Treherne, Dr. Worthington, Dr. Pierce, and the 
Jesuit Holt. Those who were against the Infanta, 
Paget, Gifford, Tresham, Hesketh, Nicholas Fitz- 
herbert, and others, were to be sent away to places 
where they could do no harm. Father Persons in 
Valladolid, too, sent an interminable memorandum 
to Idiaquez for the King's consideration, laying 
down the principles which should guide him "in 
the English enterprise." Some of these priestly re- 
commendations doubtless made Philip smile grimly, 
if it was possible for him to smile any more. He 
was enjoined, " in imitation of the Holy Kings of 
old to make some vow to the Lord, such as to 
promise Him, if He gave his Majesty victory, to 
restore to the Church in England the liberty and 
privileges it possessed before King Henry separated 
it from the Apostolic See ; and especially that his 
Majesty would do his best to make some restitution 
. . . with regard to the ecclesiastical property which 
was taken from the Church." Another recom- 
mendation seems more to the point. The King, 
thinks Persons, should tranquillise men's minds in 



FATHER PERSONS' ADVICE 219 

England, and disarm jealous foreigners, by announc- 
ing at once his intention not to unite the crown 
of England to that of Spain. A tract, he proposes, 
might be written by some reputable Englishman, 
such as Sir Francis Englefield, setting forth the 
advantages to be gained by a general acceptance 
of the Infanta's candidature. Next, Father Persons 
urges the King to cause a diversion, and alarm 
Elizabeth by sending a force to aid the Scottish 
nobles: "The same thing maybe said of the Irish 
savages, who should be encouraged by some trifling 
help in money or arms," and the English exiles in 
Flanders should be aided to make constant piratical 
raids on the English coasts and shipping. " Another 
way of strengthening our friends is that in any fleet 
his Majesty sends to England, Ireland, or Scotland, 
there should go some high English ecclesiastic, 
such as Dr. Stapleton or other in Flanders, with 
authority both from the Pope and his Majesty to 
settle matters, and assure the English of his Majesty's 
intentions, in opposition to the countless lies of our 
enemies. ... If the people do not see such a prelate 
come in his Majesty's fleet, they will be confirmed 
in their suspicion that the heretics have been telling 
the truth in saying that his Majesty wanted to 
conquer the country, and will doubt the Pope's 
intention of absolving them from their oath of 
allegiance to the Queen." A printing press will 
have to be carried in the fleet, " such as was pre- 
pared in Flanders in the year '88 " : the excom- 
munication of the Queen must be renewed by the 
Pope, and the proclamation drawn up by Allen for 
the Armada should be now reissued, with such 



220 TREASON AND PLOT 

alterations as are needful. If there is any difficulty 
in making Dr. Stapleton a cardinal,^ he might be 
created by secret brief Bishop of Durham or Ely and 
Papal Nuncio in England, smaller English bishoprics 
being given to Dr. Worthington and Dr. Pierce. 
*'But if the fleet is going to Ireland, it might be 
better to give the title of Archbishop of Dublin to 
an English priest (Joseph Haydon), who lives in 
Rome, a relative of Cardinal Allen." This latter 
paragraph proves that Persons knew nothing of 
Philip's plans, and the fact is confirmed by what 
follows. " In this way I trust in God that, in case 
his Majesty undertakes something promptly to 
recover his prestige, either by way of Ireland or 
Scotland, all will be well. I write this on the 
understanding that something should be done 
quickly to recover prestige, because otherwise, with 
the common talk in England and all Northern 
Europe of the weakness of Spain and of the rich 
plunder taken by the English (in Cadiz), twenty 
ships of theirs will be fitted out for every one before, 

^ Stapleton had been summoned to Eome on the death (October 
1595) of Owen Lewis, Bishop of Cassano, who had been designated for 
the cardinalate. But strong pro-Spaniard as Stapleton was, Father 
Agazzari, the head of the Jesuits, thought he was not sufficiently 
thorough to be made a cardinal, and wrote to Persons in Spain to 
secure the promotion of a person about whose fidelity to the crown, 
(of Spain) there can be no doubt (Law, " Jesuits and Seculars ") : 
Stapleton, on the other hand, was simultaneously assuring Persons 
that he would " ever remain a true and trusty servant to his Majesty 
of Spain" ("Douai Diaries"), and in 1591 had written his book, 
now extremely rare, called "Apologia pro Eege Gatholico Philippe II. 
Hispajise contra varias et falsas accusationes Elizabeths Reginse." 
Father Agazzari's objection to him could hardly have been his luke- 
warmness in adhesion to Spain ; it is more likely to have arisen from 
a belief that Stapleton was more attached to Spain than to the Society 
of Jesus. 



PHILIP'S SECRECY 221 

and they will come hither like flies. With regard 
to commencing with England or Ireland, there is 
much to be said on both sides, but the decision 
must turn upon feasibility. If England is impos- 
sible, then a beginning should be made in Ireland 
to recover prestige and give a starting-point from 
which to attack England next year, rather than 
doing nothing. . . . Above all, matters should be 
arranged to send the force to England in September 
, . . and in any case, the Earls in Flanders should 
return to Scotland ; and the Catholics in Scotland, 
who are awaiting his Majesty's decision, should 
receive some help in money to raise troops." 

And so on for many pages. Father Persons lays 
down his rules for Philip's guidance, in ignorance of 
both the real aims and intentions of the autocrat. 
One significant paragraph at the end of this docu- 
ment will probably provide for us later a key to a 
problem which has never yet been satisfactorily 
solved. It would be well, it says, for some fitting per- 
son also to go to England to treat with those Earls 
there who twice sent their agent, Sterello, to Flanders 
last winter, and to see what foundation there was for 
the new offer about Flushing.^ All July and August 
Persons was busy in his prospective arrangements 
for the success of the new Armada, and bombarded 
the younger Idiaquez with memoranda, exhortations, 
and advice for the King. He was deeply engaged, 
he said, in translating into Latin to send to the 
Pope his famous book on the English succession, 
for Persons himself was summoned to Rome to quell 
the renewed disturbances in the English College 

1 Simaticas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



222 TREASON AND PLOT 

there,^ and he was anxious when he left Spain that 
everything should be in order, from the Jesuit point 
of view, for the subjugation of England. In the 
first days of September he wrote to Idiaquez: "Please 
let me know also about the voyage of the Adelan- 
tado. Although you say nothing, I am thinking 
that perhaps his Majesty may be sending him to 
Ireland, If neither of the other roads (i.e. England 
or Scotland) is practicable, I told you and also his 
Majesty that this Irish way might be adopted with 
God's blessing. Much will depend upon the Adelan- 
tado's taking with him from here sufficient men, 
arms, and money, and his going thither before the 
winter sets in or the Queen learns the design. I 
have put upon paper a few observations that will be 
useful to him when he arrives." To be quite ready 
for every eventuality also, Father Persons took the 
precaution of sending to Lisbon a Jesuit, the Vice- 
Rector of the College of Valladolid, with half-a- 
dozen young English missionary priests to be shipped 
on the Armada. Though they were ready to risk 
their lives at the bidding of their Jesuit superior, 
not one of these young priests knew whither they 
were being sent, the Vice-Rector, "who is very 
discreet and of noble English family," alone being 
in his principal's confidence ; but, wrote Persons^ 
" they will be worth their weight in gold when they 

* It is interesting to note, as marking the intrepid character of 
Persons, that the aged and blind Sir Francis Englefield, having expressed 
a fear that the antagonists of the Jesuits in Rome would detain Dr. 
Persons there, the latter wrote, " I fear not, nor does my spirit faint 
within me, as St. Paul said. God has brought me through worse passes 
than this, and I am full of faith and hope that He will give his Majesty 
victory " (Spanish Calendar). 



THE NEW ARMADA 223 

arrive there," though he had to borrow the money 
to send them on their way to Lisbon. 

Before he left Castile for Barcelona on his way to 
Rome, Persons amended, in accordance with the 
altered circumstances, the proclamation that Allen 
had written to be disseminated in England when the 
Spanish troops had landed from the Armada of 1588. 
The English attack upon Cadiz was now made one 
of the principal reasons why the King of Spain had 
been obliged to forego his " accustomed clemency " 
towards people who had committed so many out- 
rages against him. " His benignity," says the draft 
edict, " has only made them bolder, and he has now 
decided to accede to the universal demand of the 
oppressed Catholics and to release them from the 
yoke." The proclamation promises that the ancient 
laws and parliament of England shall be maintained, 
the ancient nobility and gentry upheld in their 
former grandeur, and Philip pledges himself to con- 
firm in their position and possessions all those that 
are favourable to him, whilst in cases where the head 
of a house is against him he will recognise as chief 
the next heir who shall aid the Catholic army. 
Where it is impossible for gentlemen at once to 
proclaim their Catholic sympathies, the King will 
allow them to remain with the heretics until 
they can conveniently go over, but at least they 
must desert the enemy at the time of battle. His 
Majesty's object being alone the peace and tran- 
quillity of England and the freedom of the Catholic 
faith, he has no quarrel with the English people as 
a whole, and will punish with the utmost severity 
any man in the Catholic army who molests, injures, 



2 24 TREASON AND PLOT 

or attacks the land or people of the country other 
than those who resist.^ 

This draft edict with Father Persons' amendments 
was left with Father Joseph Ores well, another Jesuit, 
who remained in Madrid in his absence to watch 
and help in English affairs. It was CresAvell who 
at the time of the great Armada had, at Parma's 
instance, turned the edict into English ; and he now 
considered himself authorised to suggest in its word- 
ing and spirit far more sweeping amendments than 
those made by Persons. In a long memorandum 
addressed to the King on the subject, Creswell 
exhibits himself as a man of entirely different 
methods from Persons. The latter in his fierce 
zeal would have no compromise. He was a good 
hater, a good fighter, and a man of inflexible will ; 
but no velvet glove softened his grip, no fallacious 
sweetness tempered the bitter venom of his tongue. 
Creswell was more the typical Jesuit, crawling, if 
need be, to conquer ; and in extremely guarded and 
sophistical language he advises Philip to adopt a 
course of conciliation, mildness, and moderation 
towards the English after the conquest. Liberality, 
magnanimity, concessions, rewards are the themes 
of Dr. Creswell's discourse, though he professes 
himself " so free from personal or national bias in 
the matter, that if I heard that the entire destruc- 
tion of England was for the greater glory of God 
and the welfare of Christianity, I should be glad 
of its being done." This was the natural concession 

* Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. A full account of tliese plans, with 
many additions of his own, gathered prohably by personal communica- 
tion with Persons and Creswell, Wiis sent to the Earl of Essex by Father 
Cecil, who still remained in Madrid (Birch, Memoirs). 



THE NEW ARMADA 225 

to Jesuit teaching; but in this document, and in 
others we shall notice later, Ores well shows that the 
Society of Jesus had not quite killed the English- 
man in him, as it had done in the case of Persons. 

Whilst these priests were making their prepara- 
tions for the submission of England to their faith 
at the point of Spanish pikes, and the Duchess of 
Feria,^ Englefield, and the few English pensioners 
and leading Churchmen in the Peninsula, were 
again urging that the Infanta should be openly 
adopted as the Spanish nominee to the English 
throne, Philip was plodding on his own way, thank- 
ing all these zealous advisers with vague sancti- 
moniousness, but giving no inkling to any of them 
of his real intentions.^ 

1 The Duchess of Feria (Jane Dormer), although naturally extremely 
pro-Spanish and a personal enemy of Elizabeth, was opposed to 
Persons' methods and aims. It will be recollected that there had been 
an obscure intrigue to place her at the head of affairs in Flanders 
before Parma's deiith, in order that she mi<,'ht manage Enf,'lish affairs to 
her liking. She apparently longed fi)r n return, of the political power 
of the old Englioh Catholic nobility under a frequently absent foreign 
sovereign like the Infanta. But neither the Duchess of Feria nor her 
class in England, many of whom were enriched by ecclesiastical lands, 
could desire to live undef a harrow in the hands of fierce sacerdotal 
despots like Persons and Holt. (See letter of the Duchess's sister Anne 
Lady Hutigerford to the Bishop of Cassano, May lo, 1595. State 
Papers, Domestic) Persons himself, on his way to Rome at this time, 
wrote from Genoa to Father Holt in Flanders, suggesting that the most 
suitable candidate's for the En;,'lish crown would be "the Infanta with 
the Prince Cardinal" (her prospective husband, the Archduke Albert). 
This suggestion was the natural sequel of Persons' recent book on the 
succession. 

^ The Venetian ambassador in Madrid writes (October 10, 1596), 
that the Adelantado is making greut preparations in Lisbon. " He has 
embarked 400 of the best horses in Portugal, arms for 10,000 men, 
clothing for 4000, and some vestments for the Mass. He has collected 
great numbers of carpenters, smiths, and masons, who have been 
pressed if they would not go willingly. He has brought together 
every sort of craft, and the total may number ninety, of which a third 

F 



2 26 TREASON AND PLOT 

In October all things at last seemed ready. Once 
more, through dim cathedrals, through monasteries 
and parish churches innumerable, there resounded 
fervent rogations for the success of the Catholic 
King's designs, whatever they might be ; and again 
the psalm " Contra paganos" was intoned at Mass 
throughout the land. Gradually by the middle of 
October it began to be whispered that the Bishop 
of Killaloe and the Irish gentlemen in Lisbon were 
on board the fleet; and it was assumed that Philip 
this time was aiming at the heretic Queen through 
Ireland, and not direct at the heart of her realm. 
The Irish exiles, with hearts aflame at the thought 
of their home and faith, proclaimed to all who 
would listen how easy such an enterprise would 
be. Had they not on their side, even now in arms, 
all that was best and bravest of Ireland itself? 
True, the Queen of England held the two best 
harbours, but many others hardly less good were 
yearning to welcome the delivering Catholic fleet. 
From the easy conquest of willing Ireland to the 
domination of England was but a step, and the 
Queen herself knew that if she lost Ireland England 
must go too.^ 

would be fit to fight. There are 12,000 men on board, including sea- 
men. Ships and munitions are very poor ; there is a great lack of 
biscuits. The extent of the preparations, the variety of the provisions, 
and the anxiety of the Adelantado lead people to believe that he is to 
sail as soon as possible, and not merely go to winter at Ferrol, but may 
push on at once to some further destination. Some conjecture that 
Africa will he the object, hut common opinion points to Ireland or England. 
. . . But nothing certain can he known at fresent, as all orders are sent to 
the Adelantado under the King's own hand" (Venetian Calendar). This 
will show how completely in the dark every one was as to Philip's 
intentions on the very eve of the sailing of the fleet. 

^ It is worth noting that English historians have nearly always 



THE NEW ARMADA 227 

Thus spoke the ardent Celts, and their enthu- 
siasm was contagious amongst the listening lands- 
men. But with seamen it was otherwise. They 
saw with dismay and understood the meaning of 
the demoralisation that reigned everywhere. The 
Adelantado, a passionate, impressionable man, wept 
and imprecated in turns at the apparent impossi- 
bility of having everything ready at the same time. 
Provisions and water went bad whilst hulls were 
being caulked : when the guns were on board at 
Lisbon, the ammunition was at Ferrol or Seville : 
seamen deserted as soon as they were shipped, and 
stores dwindled as the weeks passed on. At length, 
in the middle of October, Philip's almost inexhaus- 
tible patience gave way, as it had done, with dis- 
astrous result, at the time of the first Armada. 
Peremptory orders were sent to Lisbon that the 
fleet must sail at once, ready or not ready, and make 
for Ireland. Again the miserable precedent of the 
Armada was followed. The Adelantado summoned 
his captains to conference, and they agreed to re- 
monstrate with the King that to sail then would be 
to court disaster. The reply of Philip now was the 
same as he gave to Medina Sidonia in 1588. The 
fleet was to obey orders and sail, let the risk be 
what it might; and on the 23rd October 1596 the 
second Spanish Armada beat out of the Tagus. But 

assvimed that this fleet was intended for the invasion of the Isle of 
Wight. This arose from the fact that its intended destination was 
kept secret, as we have seen, even from the high oflBicers on board. 
The captured Spaniards from various coasting vessels seized by the 
English during the winter (1596-97) could only repeat the common 
gossip about the fleets going to the Isle of Wight. The official papers 
that I have quoted — and will quote — in this book show that there was 
never any idea on the part of the King of it going thither. 



228 TREASON AND PLOT 

alas ! unready still, and, like its predecessor, it was 
forced to put into Vigo to ship more men and pro- 
visions, though we are told^ that *'in order to 
furnish this fleet it has been necessary to take every 
sort of ship, ammunition, and arms that could be 
found in all Spain." 

News came that an English squadron was hovering 
off the coast of Galicia, and had even looked into 
Vigo Bay ; but it was evidently no match for the 
Adelantado's united fleet; and the latter finally^ 
on the 27th October, sailed out of Vigo, with the 
exception of the Biscay squadron under Zubiaur, 
which could not weather the point of Bayona." Off 

^ Venetian Calendar, November 3, 1596. 

^ The following is a statement of the strength of the fleet as it left 
Lisbon for the invasion of Ireland : — 

T071S. 

Spanish royal ships . . . . . . . 15 8190 

Portuguese royal ships 9 6320 

Dutch and German freighted (or rather pressed) ships 53 12,643 

Transports ......... 6 470 

Caravels 15 450 

Men. Companies. Men. 

The levies of De Luna 17 1800 

„ „ Lisbon 13 1285 

„ „ Andalucia 16 1635 

Adventurers . . . . . . . . 32 3410 

_78 8130 

Men. 

Cavalry 360 

Adventurers and mercenaries 100 

Portuguese ........... 2800 

Men on the Seville squadron ....... 2500 

In the port of Vigo to be shipped 3300 

In all . . . 16,590 



ANOTHER DISASTER 229 

Finisterre a great winter gale swept down out of 
the bay, and scattered like husks the ships that 
represented so many months of toil and trouble.^ 
Over twenty crowded vessels perished in the storm 
with 3000 souls on board, and those that survived 
destruction hustled, as best they might, battered and 
crippled, into Ferrol, where 2000 more men died 
of pestilence in the next few days. Pestilence, too, 
scourged the Biscay fleet still remaining at Vigo. 
The men on both fleets, panicstricken at the evil 
fortune that followed them, deserted as soon as they 
were landed from the overcrowded floating pest- 
houses. Despair again fell upon all hearts but one ; 
for the elements themselves seemed against the 
long-suffering King and the Catholic cause. Out 
of the welter of misery one fact stood clearly : that 
for this year, at least, England had no cause for fear 
of any attack from Spain ; and the watchers by the 
beacons, who had stood, like links of a chain, on 
every headland along the southern British shore, 
slept sound of nights in their beds ; for the second 
Armada had shared the fate of the first, and the 
Power that ruled the tempest fought still on the 
side of England. 

But the news that rejoiced the Protestant English- 
men fell like a death-knell on the hearts of the 
Irish insurgents, who had looked with such high 
hopes for the coming of their friends. To make all 

^ It was reported by "an honest man from Bilbao" (December 9, 
Hatfield Papers, vol. vi.) that 40 ships of war and 12 victuallers with 
over 4CXXD men were lost. Other accounts make the number of ships 
wrecked 30 and the loss of life 3000 men. Spanish accounts give the 
number of ships lost as being " about 24." 



230 TREASON AND PLOT 

things ready for the reception of the new Armada, 
Captain Cobos had gone in a swift caravel from 
Corunna to Killibegs some weeks before, carrying 
with him letters from the King to Tyrone, OTJonnell, 
and the chiefs, bidding them be of good cheer and 
courage, for help was now really at hand. Cobos 
arrived at Killibegs harbour on the 26th September, 
and invited O'Donnell to meet him. They agreed 
that the Catholic "Lords" should be summoned in 
formal assembly at the monastery of Donegal to hear 
the message from the King whom they had chosen 
for their suzerain. For a week Cobos remained in 
the harbour of Killibegs, whilst the chiefs gathered 
from their fastnesses at the call of O'Donnell the 
Red, and spies of the English eagerly watched the 
Spanish caravel as she waited for news of the 
assembly. 

The truce between the Ulster chiefs and the 
English still continued, and the Connaught men-, 
with the exception of Mac William Bourke, were 
holding their hands until they should see what 
punishment would be meted out by the Government 
to their terrible persecutor, Sir Richard Bingham ; 
but Feagh M'Hugh O'Byrne, and not a few Butlers 
and Kavanaghs in his train of Leinster "rabble," 
were ravaging the English Pale well nigh in sight 
of Dublin. False news came almost daily of the 
landing of large bodies of Spanish troops, now in 
O'Dogherty's country at Innishowen in the north 
of Ulster, now at Donegal, now at Mayo, and else- 
where, and the Lord-Deputy clamoured in vain to 
the Government in London that the few scattered 
English troops at his disposal were utterly inadequate 



THE IRISH CATHOLICS 231 

to overcome a powerful incursion of foreigners.' 
Tyrone and O'Donnell were still under arms, wrote 
the English officers ; fairly as O'Neil might speak, 
his sincerity was more than doubtful, and if the 
Spaniards came he would throw off the mask.^ 
Norreys, the commander-in-chief, was at issue with 
the Lord-Deputy Russell, for the soldier, brave and 
experienced as he was, saw the urgent need of con- 
ciliating the Irish before it was too late. He it was 
who insisted that an impartial inquiry should be 
held on the atrocities of which Bingham was accused 
in Connaught, and urged that even Feagh M'Hugh, 
the rebel in arms, should be brought to some sort 
of "composition," so that the Spaniards, when they 
came, might find the Irish disunited. But still, said 
Norreys, when O'Connor Don informed him of the 
arrival of Cobos in Killibegs, it would be well to 
send one of her Majesty's vessels thither to capture 
the Spanish caravel and O'Donnell's pinnace with 
which he communicated with Spain ; " and if her 
Majesty thinks fit not to endure this underhand 
dealing of the Earl and O'Donnell, he will attack 

1 Since July the Irish Government had continued to beseech Eliza- 
beth to send at least 3000 more foot and 300 horse, with victuals, 
money, and ammunition. At the end of September, when the coming 
of the strong Spanish fleet was expected every hour, the English in 
Ireland had only seventeen barrels of powder in store. 

- An English ofl&cer wrote the following news, September 27, O.S., 
which gives an idea of the distrust then entertained of Tyrone : — " The 
Earl of Tyrone has ridden down in all post haste, very secretly, taking 
no more than two men who can speak Spanish. Before he went he 
made proclamation in Dungannon that, upon pain of death, no man 
should say anything of the ships that were come, for they were but 
Scottish. I will not judge for what cause is the Earl's departure." 
This refers to Tyrone's hurrying down to meet Cobos, whose one small 
boat in the English reports is magnified to two, three, nine, and even a 
fleet of vessels. 



232 TREASON AND PLOT 

them at once, and so handle them before next spring 
they will be glad to renounce the Spaniards ; and 
Connaught, with good usage, might be kept from 
joining them." For Norreys, unlike Russell, dis- 
believed in the probability of any Spanish. fleet being 
able to attack Ireland at so advanced a period of 
the year.^ As we have seen, had it not been for the 
providential storm which caught the Adelantado's 
fleet ofi" Finisterre on the 28th October, there would 
have landed early in November, in one of the fine 
harbours on the Irish coast, a Spanish force very 
much stronger than any army the English could 
have brought against it; and, in all probability, 
Tyrone would then have been victorious and Pro- 
testant England in deadly peril. 

This was the dangerous state of afi^airs when, on 
Sunday the 6th October 1596, the Irish chieftains 
met Captain Alonso Cobos within the ancient and 
ruinous monastery of Donegal. Jealous eyes watched 
and zealous runners reported to the English Gover- 
nors every movement of the greater Irish leaders,^ 
but we must go to Spanish sources to learn what 
happened inside the closed doors of the conference 
chamber.^ Most of the chieftains who attended 
were still ostensibly at peace with the English ; yet 
w4ien, after solemn Mass said by the Bishop of 

^ Russell wrote to Sir R. Cecil (Irish State Papers), October 2, Rath- 
drum, again praying for reinforcements, and offering his resignation. 
Will do his best when the Spaniards land, if they arrive hereabout, as 
no doubt the greatest force will, but he leaves the success to God. " I 
do protest," he says, " before God, that if the present forces be not sent 
to us with all expedition, all the English Pale will be ready to revolt, 
myself not knowing whom I may trust." 

2 Irish State Papers of the date. 

3 Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



THE REBELS MEET AT DONEGAL 233 

Eaphoe, Cobos presented to them collectively the 
King of Spain's letter of greeting and exhortation, 
and to Tyrone, O'Donnell, Cormack O'Neil, Mac- 
William O'Neil, and Dennis M'Suyne, Lord of 
Tyrbane and Chief of Killibegs, special letters of 
salutation from Philip to his new vassals, each of 
the chiefs raised the missive to his brov7 in token of 
submission, and swore to die, if needs were, " in the 
service of God and his Majesty." 1 The scene must 
have been an impressive and pathetic one. Tyrone, 
O'Donnell, and O'Dogherty were probably dressed in 
doublets and trunks of silk and velvet and wore gold 
chains around their shoulders, as Englishmen of 
their rank would have done ; but behind them, or 
near at hand, must have been their shaggy bands of 
gallowglasses with loose, safFron-dyed, linen cloaks 
and leathern jackets and brogues for their garments, 
a frowsy fringe of mane covering their eyebrows for 
their only headdress, and their crashing battleaxes 
for their only weapons. The minor chiefs and the 
" rabble " of youngsters of chieftains' kindred, with 

1 Dennis O'Rourke and MacWilliam Bourke did not attend the 
meeting, tlie former because lie was laid up with a gunshot wound in 
his arm, and the latter " because of the great distance he would have to 
come, and because he was at feud with a kinsman who claimed his 
chieftainship and land." The kinsman referred to was the English 
nominee. The chief himself (Theobald M'William Bourke) is usually 
referred to by the English officers as " the supposed or pretended 
MacWilliam." His family was of very variable attachment, but had in 
the main kept at peace with the English. Theobald was the son 
of the famous Grace O'Malley. He wrote in June 1596 to Norreys 
and Fenton saying that " he means, if possible, never to be otherwise 
than a dutiful subject or to change his own natural prince for any 
other ; " but in the same letter he hinted very strongly that if the 
English did not grant him " redress for injuries," the chieftainship and 
lands of his house, and all the rest of his demands, he should consider 
rebellion justifiable. (See Irish State Papers of the date.) 



234 TREASON AND PLOT 

their flowing yellow mantles over their armour and 
their swords girt to their sides, were the link between 
the two ; some more savage than courtly, some more 
courtly than savage. But prince and gallowglass, 
Oxford scholar and barbarian mountain kern, they 
w^ere all Irishmen, moved mainly by two overpower- 
ing impulses — a fierce love of battle and a fine scorn 
of the Sassenach. 

But alas ! they were Irishmen, too, in their weak- 
ness ; and Cobos reported, when he came home to 
Spain, that after the chiefs had fervently thanked 
God and his Majesty publicly for the aid and pro- 
tection promised to their land and faith, '' each one 
took me aside separately to assure me that he and 
his folk would be the first to join the Spanish force 
when it arrived." "I spoke to O'Neil and O'Don- 
nell apart," wrote Cobos to the King, " and said 
that at last the hour they had longed for had come, 
and that before winter set in, the succour they had 
so often requested would be there. I urged them to 
set about making what raids the}' could to show 
their zeal, and also to make the necessary arrange- 
ments secretly for the reception of our force. They 
thanked his Majesty, and said that they were always 
ready and waiting, like the faithful vassals they 
were. They would never fail in their promises. 
Secrecy was as important, they said, to them as to 
us. They had been playing fast and loose with the 
enemy for a long time, awaiting his Majesty's aid, 
and a fortnight ago the English came with 1500 
footmen and 600 horse into their lands to force them 
to make peace. . . . Norreys left off fighting and 
tried to make terms, but they would only consent to 



THE MEETING OF THE CHIEFS 235 

a truce for a month and a day. All this was solely 
to await your Majesty's succour, whilst they pre- 
vented the Queen from sending more forces. I 
asked them where would be the best place to land 
the troops, to be most effectual and safe for faci- 
litating the junction of the forces. They thought 
on the north-west coast, such a place as Galway, 
where there is a company of English in garrison for 
the last three months. The town is close to the 
lands of MacWilliam Bourke, and will surrender the 
moment a fleet approaches. If weather forces the 
fleet into St. George's Channel, they think it should 
anchor in Carlingford, thirty Irish miles from 
Dublin, where they will be in touch with O'Neill's 
people. All the north is friendly." 

Then followed a closely detailed description of 
the state of the country from a military point of view, 
which tallies almost exactly with the accounts to be 
found in the English State Papers. Every English 
garrison is enumerated, and the total strength of 
English troops in the island appears to have been 
4000 infantry and 600 cavalry. How great was the 
danger then imminent, with a Spanish fleet carrying 
more than double that number of men, only waiting 
for a fair wind to sail for Ireland, will be apparent, 
and the despondency of Russell was fully justified. 
Nothing was omitted by Philip to gain the good-will 
of the chiefs. Not only were Tyrone and O'Donnell 
addressed in autograph letters full of flattering 
expressions, but two similar letters with the address 
in blank were entrusted to Cobos, with which to 
gratify such other chiefs as he thought would be 
most useful. He was extremely diplomatic in his 



236 TREASON AND PLOT 

use of the letters, and handed them respectively to 
two important Ulstermen, who had usually been 
friendly to the English, though both of them had 
rescued and relieved some of the fugitives from the 
wrecks of the Armada ships in 1588. "One of the 
letters your Majesty gave me without superscription 
I gave to a gentleman named O'Dogherty/ a lord of 
many vassals, a great soldier and greatly esteemed, 
who said he was anxious to prove his loyalty by his 
acts. The other I gave to a gentleman named James 
Oge M'Sorleyboy, a Scotsman, who holds some ports 
on this coast opposite Scotland. He is a good 
soldier and very brave. lie was neutral when I 
arrived previously, but is now a great friend of the 
Catholic chiefs, and they thought he would be flat- 
tered at your Majesty's writing to him." ^ 

The meeting, however, did not pass without some 
little unpleasantness. It will be recollected that the 
letter that Cobos had brought from Philip to Tyrone 
on his previous visit to Ireland had been "lent to 
Norreys," not to be copied, but simply to prove how 
the Spaniards were courting him (Tyrone), and how 
irreproachably loyal he was in spurning their ad- 
vances. One of the other chiefs secretly told Cobos 
that Tyrone had sent the King's letter to the 
Sassenach ; and the Spaniard, distrustful of what 
certainly looked like treachery, taxed Tyrone with 

1 He was an English knight, and the English called him Sir John 
O'Doherty. 

2 This was the son of the famous Sorleyboy M'Donnell, Lord of 
Dunluce and joint Lord of the Route, who had so sturdily helped the 
shipwrecked men from the Armada. He was not present at the 
meeting, the letter being carried to him by Hugh Boy O'Davitt, after- 
wards Tyrone's envoy to Spain. 



THE MEETING OF THE CHIEFS 237 

it, saying that the King had heard of it in Spain. 
Tyrone explained the matter truly enough, saying 
that he had acted as he did in order to deceive the 
English and make them believe in his loyalty until 
the Spaniards came ; but Cobos was still indignant, 
and "warned them to keep their promises better 
for the future."^ The chiefs, in their turn, were 
anxious to know what had happened at Cadiz, 
" for the enemy said that Essex had sacked and 
plundered the city and burnt the fleet." " I," says 
Cobos, "replied that they, being neighbours of the 
English, should know better than any one that, in 
order to bring about peace in Ireland, they would 
invent all manner of lies. It was true, I said, that 
they had sacked Cadiz, thanks to the weakness of 
the townspeople, but they did not wait to encounter 
any force, and only made incursions on unprotected 
places, and ran away as quickly as they could." 
And so, leaving the Irishmen full of hope for the 

1 The letter was entrusted by Tyrone to Captain Warren, who was 
the officer usually employed to communicate with him. Warren pro- 
duced it to the Irish Privy Council, who declined to return it, and not 
only broke the pledge given to Tyrone that it should not even be 
copied, but sent the original to Queen Elizabetli, who took care to 
have it conveyed to Philip, in proof of the falsity of Tyrone, 'i'he 
latter and O'Donnell constantly referred to this action as proving how 
little they could trust the English. Norreys wrote to Sir Robert Cecil 
in July 1596, when there was a talk of Tyrone going to England, and 
sending his son to the Earl of Essex to be educated. " This he 
(Tyrone) hath deferred as he answereth upon detaining the King of 
Spain's letter : and this I will assure your Honour, that there is not 
the basest rogue of a rebel in Ireland that hath not ordinarily in his 
mouth how they may trust us with their lives, when the Earl was 
deceived in trusting the Lord-Deputy but with a letter. O'Donnell did 
swear that if that letter had not been detained, either he or the Earl 
had been in England before Michaelmas" (Irish State Papers). We 
may doubt this last assertion of O'Donnell's, in view of the Spanish 
accounts now before us. 



238 TREASON AND PLOT 

speedy coming of the great force which was on the 
way to free Ireland and make England Catholic, 
Captain Cobos left Donegal on the 9th October to 
join his pinnace at Killibegs, carrying with him an 
interesting sheaf of letters for Spain.^ Nearly every- 
body with whom Cobos had come into contact in 
Ireland wanted some separate favour for himself. 
The Franciscan friars at Donegal wished for money 
to repair the ruin of their monastery by the English 
soldiery, and some chalices and church ornaments. 
Hugh Boy O'Davitt asked for a pension ; Cobos him- 
self petitioned for a captain's pay as well as the 
rank, and Cormack O'Neil wanted so much as to 
fill a long letter with his petition.'^ Tyrone and 
O'Donnell are mainly concerned in the prompt 
coming of succour ; but the former, in a fervent 
letter to the King, explains the circumstances which 
led him to send Philip's former letter to the English, 
and concludes thus : "In the name of God, and by 
my holy baptism, I assert that I did not send the 
letter to the Viceroy, except for the above-mentioned 

1 Amongst these was one of extreme interest, which I transcribed at 
Simancas. It has no special bearinij upon the subject of this book, but 
I cannot help referring to it. It is in the form of a humble, illiterate 
petition, written and signed by eight Spanish soldiers, who, having 
escaped from the massacre of the shipwrecked men from the Armada, 
had lived in the territories of O'Neil and O'Donnell ever since. They 
humbly pray for some wages or aid " to fit out their persons and arms, 
better to serve his ?ilajesty as guides, interpreters, or otherwise, when the 
Spanish force lands." These same men had earnestly prayed Cobos, 
when he came to Ireland some months previously, to take them back 
with him to Spain, but he had refused, and told them they would be 
required as interpreters if a Spanish force were sent. 

' " Your Lordship," he wrote to Idiaquez, " has done me great honour, 
and now I beg you to favour me as follows. For I have always fought 
against the English for the Catholic faith, and if God give me health I 
will devote the rest of my life to his Majesty's service. I have many 



DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE IRISH 239 

reasons ; and I pray your Majesty to pardon me, 
without distrust or misgiving. — Donegal, 8tli October, 
1596/' A few days afterwards, Cobos sailed from 
M'Suyne's harbour of Killibegs, arriving in Spain 
shortly before the disaster already described to the 
invading fleet, and the letters and reports that the 
Captain submitted to his sorely-tried sovereign at the 
Pardo on the 20th November were but as Dead Sea 
fruit to Philip, for Heaven was still against him, and 
no Armada of his could go to Ireland that year. 

Week after week the Irish chieftains watched with 
straining eyes for the coming of their deliverers. 
They had gone too far now easily to draw back, 
and O'Donnell had come down into Connaught with 
his clansmen to join the Spaniards when they should 
sail into Galway harbour. Famine was stalking 
abroad through Ireland, even in the Pale, and the 
English garrisons themselves lacked food. The Lord- 
Deputy, Norreys, and Fenton prayed and suppli- 
cated the politicians in London to send men, money, 
food, and arms ; ^ " for nothing but force will serve 

witnesses who will bear testimony to what I have done against the 
heretics in all times past ; and I do hope to God that his Majesty will 
remember me for these lands ; " and then follows a long list of estates 
which Cormack O'Neil covets. " I beg you to ask his Majesty for all 
these for me, as I have well deserved them, fighting against the Eng- 
lish, I also ask you to beg his Majesty to please supply me with 400 
infantry and 100 cavalry for his Majesty's service, as I have great ex- 
perience in this country," This characteristic letter is badly written in 
illiterate Spanish by one of the wrecked Spanish soldiers, and is signed 
by Cormack O'Neil in stiff, high-drawn Irish characters, like a row 
of pikes (Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv,). 

1 The constant complaint of the Irish Government was that the men 
sent from England were utterly unserviceable. Bingham, Fentou, 
Norreys, and all the experienced commanders referred to them constantly 
as " poor old ploughmen," " rogues," " runaways." Bingham says of one 
draught that "many were diseased and many mad;" and Norreys 



240 TREASON AND PLOT 

now," wrote Russell in January, xirmagh was sur- 
rounded by rebels and in danger of starvation, and 
news came that the Spanish fleet was still in being, 
and might sail again. But Tyrone at length saw 
that he was resting upon a broken reed, and the 
talk of " composition " and "pledges" began again. 
Norreys collected such forces as were available, 
and marched to re-victual Armagh in the middle of 
January 1597. When he reached Dundalk, he found 
Tyrone holding the passes between that town and 
Newry to contest his passage, but when the rebel 
saw that Norreys really meant business, he suddenly 
changed his attitude and sent loyal messages to the 
English general. At first he wished to make con- 
ditions about the pardon of Feagh M'Hugh, but 
nothing short of unconditional submission would do 
for Norreys ; and the next day the two commanders 
met, with a little shallow rivulet only running be- 
tween them, not a gunshot away from the English 
camp. "There," says Norreys, "he made vehement 
protestations of loyalty, taking God and heaven to 
witness. . . . His outward shows are fair, and his 
oaths deep and vehement, but we cannot tell if his 
heart and inward meaning are agreeable, considering 
how often he has slipped before." ^ Hostages were 
sent, pledges were given ; Tyrone was loyalty itself 
in protestation, though few people believed him, and 
those who were inclined to do so, like Norreys and 

•wrote of another that not twenty men out of two companies were likely 
to prove good soldiers. They were indeed the mere sconrings of the 
jails, gutters, and hospitals ; and the Irish levies in the English service, 
excellent soldiers, but distrusted on account of their nationality, were 
really the mainstay of English power in Ireland. 

1 Norreys, &c., to the Privy Council, Drogheda, January 24, 1597. 



O'DONNELL HOLDS OUT 241 

Fenton, deplored the facility with which he was 
led by those who were thought to be more deeply 
pledged to the Spaniards than himself, especially his 
brother, Cormack O'Neil, and O'Donnell. 

Though Tyrone, as paramount Prince of Ulster 
and "great O'Neil," claimed sway over his associated 
chiefs, his own devout lip-service to the English 
Queen found but slight echo in the haughty Hugh 
O'Donnell and the Connaught men, who, in spite of 
friend and foe, stood through the winter (1596-97), 
armed and waiting, often almost at the gates of 
Galway, the coming of the Spaniards, who came 
not. Whilst O'Donnell, 0'E,ourke, Mac William, and 
MacDermot held all Connaught outside the walled 
towns, and Feagh M'Hugh O'Byrne ravaged Leinster 
at his will, the English governors of Ireland, in the 
deepest despondency at the impossibility of obtain- 
ing the needed resources from England, were quar- 
relling and mutually recriminating with each other 
at the general helplessness ; and Philip, in his for- 
bidding granite palace in the mountains far away, 
was stolidly toiling at the smallest details of another 
great expedition, that surely, he thought, before he 
died, should make liim sovereign of Ireland, with 
the future fate of England in his hands. Then 
indeed all would be well with his beloved Spain, 
and his weary lifework would be done. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Fears of a Spanish invasion of England — English preparations — Essex's 
voyage — Lopez de Soto's letters — Strength of the Adelantado's fleet 
(1597) — Its inglorious return to Spain — Eenewed appeal of the Irish 
rebels to Spain — Tyrone's discontent with the Spaniards — Another 
truce with Tyrone. 

In the last chapter we have seen how extremely 
perilous was the position of the English in Ireland 
at the opening of the year 1597. This, however, 
was not by any means the only point at which 
danger seemed to threaten from Spain, and the 
slowness of the Queen and her Ministers in respond- 
ing to the urgent demands of the commanders in 
Ireland for warlike resources is explained by the 
fact that in the view of Englishmen at the centre of 
government the first duty was to provide against 
the possibility of a successful attack upon the heart 
of the nation itself; and, moreover, the intelligence 
they received gave them the incorrect belief that the 
main Spanish attack in 1596 was to be on the Isle 
of Wight, the Irish expedition being only a diver- 
sion.^ Public opinion in England was indeed pro- 
foundly impressed by the supposed imminence of a 
renewed attempt at the invasion and conquest of the 
country by a foreign force, and the breach between 
the two sections of Catholics was in consequence 

1 As I have pointed out in a previous note, this erroneous belief has 
survived to the present day. 



FEELING IN ENGLAND 243 

ever widening.^ " Would to God," wrote one loyal 
Catholic to Lord Burghley, " that her Majesty would 
grant toleration of religion, whereby men's minds 
would be appeased and join all in defence of our 
country" (Hatfield Papers, vol. vii.), as had been 
the case in France by the granting of the Edict of 
Nantes. But religious animus had been stirred to 
its lowest depth by contending politicians, and it 
suited Elizabeth and her Ministers to affect a dis- 
belief in the patriotism of all Catholics. So the 
game of priest-hunting and recusant-bating went on 
as briskly as before, because it strung up the indig- 
nation of the majority to the war pitch and frightened 
waverers into the Protestant camp. The Essex war 
party had now quite gained the upper hand in the 
counsels of the Queen. Ealegh and Essex had for 
once patched up their quarrels, and the Cecil interest 

1 Amongst Lord. Burghley's papers there is, for instance, a long and 
able Latin paper written at this juncture, apparently by Dr. Wright, 
Dean of Courtrai, one of the fugitives in Flanders, discussing pro and 
con the question as to whether it is licit for Catholics in England to 
oppose by arms and otherwise an attack upon the country by Spain. 
The conclusion arrived at is that English Catholics are in duty bound 
to protect their country against any foreigner whatsoever, and the 
author, pensioner though he was of Philip, expresses doubt as to the 
sincerity of the King's profession that his concern was mainly for the 
Catholic religion (Appendix to Strype's " Annals," vol. iii.). See also an 
interesting letter from an English Cathflic fugitive to the Queen (Hat- 
field Papers, vol. vii. p. 34), written in January 1 597, begging her to con- 
form to the Catholic faith, but expressing undying loyalty to her. In 
the same collection (p. 86) there is a letter written by Harry Constable, 
a Catholic from Paris, to the Earl of Essex (February 1597), protesting 
his loyalty, and saying that he has written to Rome to dissuade the Pope 
from giving credit to those English Catholics who favour the designs of 
Spain. This, he said, was the wish of most Englishmen in Rome, and 
it was suggested that loyal English Catholics abroad should bind them- 
selves by oath to oppose all violent proceedings under the guise of 
religion. 



244 TREASON AND PLOT 

almost for the first time smiled upon the Earl's war- 
like ardour. 

For during Essex's absence on the Cadiz expe- 
ditions, Sir Robert Cecil had at last received the 
Secretaryship which he had coveted so long, and 
everything had gone smoothly. The Earl's rashness 
and irascibility also exposed him in every expedition 
to mistakes which on his return irritated the Queen 
against him. All this suited the Cecils, and instead 
of opposing Essex, they were now willing that he 
should have his way. At least they would be relieved 
of his jealous ill-temper and the constant discord he 
created at court. As usual, his plan was to strike a 
hard blow at Spain before England could be attacked ; 
but the soldiers differed from the seamen as to how 
or where the blow should be dealt. The recent 
traditions of England pointed to another naval ex- 
pedition, similar to that of the previous year, only 
now directed against the north-western ports, where 
Philip's new armada was being laboriously fitted out ; 
but Essex had usually been in favour of land attack. 
The Spaniards had captured Calais before his eyes 
only a year before, and even now the harbour was 
filled with flat-bottomed flyboats, which threatened 
an invasion of England. The King of France, too, 
offered the Queen the possession of Calais if she 
could wrest it from the Spaniards, though we may 
be quite certain that there was a reservation behind 
the Bearnais' proposal, and the soldiers clamoured 
unanimously for a great land army to be sent from 
England to capture again England's ancient gate to 
the Continent. Sir Francis Vere especially urged 
Essex to undertake this task with adequate forces, 



ESSEX'S FLEET, 1597 245 

as being the surest way to cripple and disable 
Spain. 

But there were other considerations. All the 
recent glory of England, all her new-born potency 
and increasing wealth, had been gained on the sea ; 
the people themselves were stirred at the idea of 
naval adventure and abundant loot ; and the cost 
of fitting out a fleet would be largely met by 
"adventurers" on the chance of private gain; 
whereas the Queen herself would have to pay the 
entire cost of an army. Ralegh, now hand-in-glove 
with Essex for a time, wrote a masterly essay called 
" Opinion on the Spanish Alarum," in which he 
quite correctly expressed incredulity of an attack 
in force upon England, but strongly advocated the 
fitting out of a fleet sufficient for protection and 
ofience. Ten ships were hastily put into com- 
mission for the protection of the coast (February 
1597)' but as alarmist news came from the spies 
of the vast preparations being made in Ferrol for 
the sailing of a Spanish Armada,^ Essex's mind was 
made up, and he threw his influence on the side of 

1 Sir Robert Sidney wrote from Flushing to Essex, April 14, 1597, 
tliat Philip had ordered the construction of twenty-eight ships of 
800 tons each, and had sent 50,000 ducats to begin the work. One 
thousand soldiers, he reported, had been sent to Ferrol to be embarked 
for Brittany and Calais to make war upon England in the summer, 
and he speaks of other preparations in the Spanish ports (Hatfield 
Papers, vol. vii.). Sir Edward Norreys wrote in the same month from 
Ostend of the powerful Armada in preparation, with great levies of 
troops of all nationalities to attack England. There were twenty great 
ships, he said, at Corunna, sent by the Pope and the Italian princes, 
ready to sail with the first wind. " They prepare 40,000, wherewith 
they have swallowed up the poor island of England in their conceit" 
{ibid., p. 187). This, as we shall see, was untrue, but it greatly disturbed 
people in England. 



246 TREASON AND PLOT 

the sailors, though to Sir Francis Vere's openly- 
expressed disgust (Hatfield Papers, vol. vii. p. 212). 
Essex laboured diligently, beset with many diifi- 
culties, mainly born of the Queen's parsimony, to 
commission and provision his new fleet. Soldiers 
were pressed with difficulty, for already the levies 
for Holland and Picardy had weighed heavily upon 
the adult male population of the south and east 
coast ; but at length in June Essex found himself 
in command of a fleet consisting of three squadrons, 
one under his immediate orders, another under Lord 
Thomas Howard, and the third under Ralegh.^ 
Besides these experienced commanders the best of 
the young Protestant nobility were included in the 
officers on board.^ There are twenty Queen's ships, 
ten Dutch men-of-war, and a large number of mer- 
chant ships and victuallers, the entire force consisting 
of 120 sail with 5000 soldiers on board. Essex's 

^ The Lord Admiral Howard declined to take part in the command 
of the expedition, in consequence of his discontent at his share of the 
plunder of Cadia. He was not well pleased either at Essex's behaviour 
towards him, though the deadly quarrel between them did not take 
place until the return of the expedition of 1597. 

2 John Chamberlain wrote to Dudley Carleton on the 11/21 June : 
" We have great preparations here for a sea viage which troubles our 
discoursers how or where it shal be imployed. The common sort of talke 
of Calais, others of the island Terceira, but most likelie in my opinion 
is set upon the King of Spaine's navy wheresoever they can find it 
or meet with the Indian fleet. Theire whole number consists of 
fifteen Queene's shippes besides the two Spanish shippes that were 
taken last yeare (which be new fashioned after the English manner) 
and of two and twentie men of warre of Holland and some foure 
and twenty flyboats for carriage of men and victuals. They have with 
them 4000 prest men and 1 200 muskettiers that come with Sir Francis 
Vere out of Holland." It will be seen that the official accounts of the 
strength of the expedition differ somewhat from Chamberlain, but the 
former is most likely to be correct (John Chamberlain's Letters, 
Camden Society). 



ESSEX'S FLEET DRIVEN BACK 247 

commission was strictly confined to the destruction 
of the Spanish fleet in Eerrol, or wherever he might 
find it, but failure dogged him from the first. 
Alternate calms and contrary gales kept him for a 
fortnight between the Downs and Plymouth, then 
supplies ran short and victuals went bad, and Essex 
was obliged to send Fulke Greville to the Queen to 
beseech her " of her princely wisdom " to grant them 
another month's provisions/ This with some demur 
being granted, Essex again grew hopeful ; but such 
a summer " as was never seen by man " raged in the 
Channel, and although Essex managed to sail out of 
Plymouth on the loth July, he encountered during 
the next ten days such foul weather as to reduce him 
to despair. The squadrons were scattered, and more 
than once the commanders "gave themselves up to 
God." At length Essex's squadron, battered, crippled, 
and disabled, regained Plymouth, whilst E-alegh's 
ships, in even worse case, sought shelter in Falmouth. 
Lord Thomas Howard's squadron crossed the Bay of 
Biscay almost to the Spanish coast, but he too was 
driven back and returned to England." 

London was panicstricken at the disaster ; for all 
men had been told that the Adelantado's fleet might 
appear on the English coast at any time ; but the 
Queen, through her fears, wept for joy when she 
learned that Essex and Ralegh at least were safe ; and 
even the Lord Admiral earnestly prayed the former 
to return post haste to court,^ where, he says, " we 
are like a naked flock without a shepherd." Again 

^ Hatfield Papers, vol. vii. 

2 State Papers, Domestic, Ralegh to Cecil, July i8, 1597. 

' State Papers, Domestic, cclxiv. 



248 TREASON AND PLOT 

the hard task of persuading the Queen to spend the 
necessary money to refit the fleet, to allow her 
favourite to leave her, and to undertake the respon- 
sibility of attacking Spain, had to be done afresh. 
Essex and Ralegh went to court, and together joined 
their prayers ; but they found the Queen more frac- 
tious than ever. The season was far advanced, the 
enemy was now on the alert, and she positively 
refused to allow her men and ships to be exposed to 
risk. After much tearful begging, Essex at length 
persuaded her, for his own honour's sake, to allow 
him to sail to the Spanish coast with a reduced 
force, for the sole purpose of sending some fire- 
ships into Ferrol harbour and burning the Spanish 
vessels there. But to make quite sure that he did 
no more than this, the Queen insisted upon his 
landing all the English troops but the veterans 
from Holland before he sailed, and he had to pledge 
himself to her on his honour not to venture one 
of her ships or himself into Ferrol. Ralegh 
might enter the harbour if he pleased, but Essex 
was to remain outside, or he should not be al- 
lowed to sail at all. Fretful, discontented, and 
peevish, the Earl was forced to obey, and finally, 
on the 17th August, he sailed again with his cur- 
tailed force. 

Once more a terrible westerly gale assailed him 
in the Bay, and disabled the great San Mateo, the 
Spanish prize he had captured at Cadiz. She was 
obliged, in a water-logged condition, to stagger back 
to England as best she might, whilst the rest of the 
fleet, disheartened and damaged, was at length swept 
out of the Bay by an easterly gale which efi'ectually 



FAILURE OF ESSEX'S FLEET 249 

prevented any of the ships from approaching Ferrol. 
Ralegh and his squadron of thirty sail was lost sight 
of altogether. The next day (August 24), Essex 
received false news from one of Ralegh's captains to 
the effect that the Spanish fleet had already sailed 
out of Ferrol under the Adelantado to the Azores, 
for the purpose of escorting the treasure-fleet home ; 
and on the faith of this Essex sailed at once towards 
Terceira, sending despatch-boats to order Ralegh to 
follow him. Through some blunder the latter re- 
mained for a week longer on the Portuguese coast, 
whilst Essex awaited him at Flores. There the 
commander-in-chief was informed that the treasure- 
fleet was, after all, not coming that way, and when 
Ralegh at length joined him, it was decided to sail 
for Fayal and St. Michael's to endeavour to intercept 
the Indian flotillas there. Ralegh lost sight of his 
chief and reached Fayal first, and, after waiting 
three days, imprudently took upon himself to cap- 
ture and plunder the island, greatly to Essex's indig- 
nation when he arrived the following day, and bad 
blood was again brewed between the rival favourites. 
The fleet remained at sea a month longer in the 
hope of meeting the treasure-ships, but in vain, 
and came back to Plymouth, October 26, with only 
three rich merchantmen as prizes, barely sufficient 
to cover the cost of the expedition. Black looks 
greeted Essex at court, for he had not performed 
or seriously attempted either of the tasks for which 
he went, the pecuniary result of his efforts was in- 
significant, and, worst of all, whilst he had been 
beguiled by false information to sail on his wild- 
goose chase to the Azores, the Adelantado with the 



250 TREASON AND PLOT 

dreaded Armada of Spain had been almost within 
sight of the English coast.^ 

No more vivid pictnre can be found of the utter 
demoralisation which had taken possession of Spanish 
officialdom than that presented in the series of 
papers and letters now in the British Museum"' relat- 
ing to the preparations for the great Armada, which, 
as we have seen, in 1597 created so much alarm in 
England. They are mainly the letters and reports 
of Pedro Lopez de Soto, the Secretary of the Ade- 
lantado of Castile, who was to command the fleet ; 
and their perusal enables us to understand fully, 
for the first time, the almost insuperable difficulties 
which Philip's system had created for himself. 
Lopez de Soto was the executive officer through 
whom all orders passed, yet he was kept absolutely 
in the dark as to the intentions of the King, He 
writes to the Council of War (July 2, 1597) recom- 
mending that all the merchant ships loaded with 
Spanish produce destined for the Channel or Flemish 

^ The final estrangement of Essex from tlie Queen dates from this 
period. In his absence the previous year the Secretaryship had been 
given to Cecil ; on his return on this occasion, he found that Lord 
Admiral Howard had been made Earl of Nottingham, and now took 
precedence over Essex. The latter, therefore, stormed and flouted until 
the whole court was in a turmoil. He challenged the aged Lord 
Admiral and his sons ; was reproved by the Queen, and absented him- 
self from court for many months, alternately insulting and tearful to his 
mistress. The Queen, sometimes in a rage at his obstinacy, sometimes 
grieved at his serious illness, was profoundly disturbed and unhappy ; 
and though she finally forgave him in December 1 597, and granted 
him precedence over Howard, she expressed herself determined to 
break his spirit before she finished with him. 

2 British Museum, Add. MSS. 28,420. Some of these papers, giving 
an account of the actual strength of the fleet, have been transcribed by 
me, and included in the Calendar of Spanish State Papers, vol. iv. 
The rest are unpublished. 



THE THIRD ARMADA, 1597 251 

ports should be embargoed, in order that the English 
might not make use of them, but that the Spaniards 
might do so if they needed them. This, he insists, 
should be done swiftly and without notice, as the 
Portuguese and Andalusian nobles and merchants, 
whose oil, wine, and produce filled the ships, would 
not, he said, like it. He then continues as follows : 
" It is not to be expected that the English fleet will 
come to Spain this year, even if they had the 20,000 
soldiers to land, and the 12,000 men for the ships, 
and the supplies needful for the purpose. But it is, 
nevertheless, very desirable that we should make a 
show of preparation and arming on our side (which 
seems to have stopped as soon as the news came 
that no fleet would be raised in England this year)/ 
and that forces should be collected suflicient both 
to gain a footing in England and to defend our own 
country. Thus, if the attack against England be 
successful, we shall be able to reinforce our men, 
and if it be not successful we shall have a reserve. 
As your Lordships are carrying on everything so 
secretly, no one can be sure if he is correctly in- 
formed, and I have no means of knowing whether 
the opinions I express will be apposite or not. Time 
is thus frittered away. I, for my part, have decided 
to take the plunge, and say plainly what I think. 
. . . The only way out of all this confusion that I 
can see is for us to gain a footing in England this 
year. This will be to strike at the trunk, all the 
rest is simply climbing in the branches. All diffi- 

^ It sliould be recollected that Essex at this date actually had, as we 
have seen, a powerful fleet ready to sail for the Spanish coast as soon 
as the wind served. 



252 TREASON AND PLOT 

ciilties disappear before resolute, courageous, and 
timely action. The stores and men we can get 
together between this time and the loth August 
will be sufficient to effect a landing during that 
month, and I feel confident that, if we go to Wales, 
which is only forty leagues farther from Ferrol than 
Plymouth, and is a better place to land in, we can 
manage to avoid meeting their fleet. This is borne 
out by all practical seamen. Even if 300 English 
ships were to go to Milford fifteen days after we 
were established there, and land 10,000 men, they 
would find the mouth of the port defended (which 
could be done in two days), and the place ready to 
repel an attack from the sea. It is not to be ex- 
pected that the English could on such short notice 
land a force capable of battering the place on the 
land side, as we shall be strongly situated and 
on the defensive. Besides this, the conformation 
of the land is in our favour, so that the only thing 
to be feared is our delay in deciding to take this 
course. 

" In any case, it will be well to press forward 
energetically the supplying of our fleet with stores, 
and to send constant instructions to the places 
whence the stores are to come. Especially should 
the guns from the Lisbon foundry be hurried for- 
ward, because with the forty pieces ordered we can 
arm the new galleons. The Council of War should 
consider and decide upon all points that have been 
submitted about the fleet, and the Council of State 
should take the necessary action to provide the 
money, the troops, the siege artillery, the cavalry, 
and especially to decide upon the point where we 



THE THIRD ARMADA, 1597 253 

shall land. This should be kept strictly secret in 
the breasts of your Lordships and the iVdelantado." 

It will be seen by this letter that everything was 
unready in July, at the time when, for many weeks 
past, people in England had been expecting the 
fleet off their own coasts. The bad morale of 
Philip's officers is conspicuous in the series of 
petulant letters written by Lopez throughout the 
whole spring and summer to Esteban de Ibarra, 
Secretary of the Council of War. He threatens to 
retire unless he is entrusted with the destination 
and objects of the fleet. Nothing, he says, must 
be kept back from him, or he will have no more 
to do with it. Why should not he know as much 
as others ? He is never consulted ; his opinion is 
never asked ; nothing but orders are sent to him ! 
Once in June he wrote a most insolent letter to 
Ibarra, trying to pick a quarrel with him, because 
he had not informed him (Lopez) of what orders 
had been given for wheat and biscuits. More than 
once Ibarra gravely rebuked, and even covertly 
threatened him ; but Lopez always retorted with 
a fresh string of grumbling complaints. On the 
30th June he wrote that everything was in com- 
plete confusion : uniforms for the men were lack- 
ing, and there was no cavalry fit for service. " There 
is no money to provide anything, no meat, no wine, 
no siege artillery, hardly any guns for the ships." 
And so, from day to day, follow new discontents 
and fresh demands. In a postscript to a letter of 
4th July he says that on the previous day he had 
seen Don Cristobal de Moura, the principal Secre- 
tary of the King, who had gone to Ferrol to put 



2 54 TREASON AND PLOT 

matters straight, and who had told him that the 
Adelantado had declared that there was no fleet, 
or any possibility of going out and facing an enemy. 
Lopez demurred at this, and promised to send to 
Moura an exact statement of the position of the 
fleet, which, he said, would be, within five weeks, 
sufficient for the purpose which he (Lopez) had 
proposed, viz., for landing a force at Milford. "The 
Adelantado's general statement that he lacks every- 
thing is only his usual style of putting things. . . . 
Of course, if we could reinforce it (the fleet), so 
much the better ; but if we cannot, w^e must make 
the best use we can of it." 

Here we see the principal executive officer of the 
arsenals and dockyards absolutely in the dark as to 
the kind of force he will have to provide, the des- 
tination and length of voyage of the expedition, 
and quite unprepared for a prompt sailing. It is 
probable that Philip had not the slightest intention 
at the time of sending his fleet to Milford, or of 
seriously invading England direct ; as how could he 
hope to do with the material then at his disposal ? 
The statement sent by Lopez to Cristobal de Moura 
sets forth that the fleet will be ready to sail from 
Ferrol by the middle of August, and should effect 
a landing by the 8th September. The whole force, 
according to Lopez de Soto's estimate, would consist 
of 93 ships. Of these, 23 were to be of 600 to 1000 
tons burden, 25 of 300 to 600 tons, 26 of 100 to 
200 tons, with 20 galley zabras of 50 to 100 tons, 
besides pinnaces, victuallers, &c. The number of 
men which Lopez proposed to send in the fleet was 
20,000 soldiers and 4000 sailors ; and he advocated 



THE THIRD ARMADA, 1597 255 

the seizure of a large number of pinnaces to enable 
the men to be thrown rapidly on shore. He also 
professed to have invented a new sort of galley, 
capable of making long ocean voyages and carrying 
17 big guns. "They will live," he said, "through 
heavy weather as well as high-built ships, which 
they could accompany anywhere." " If your Majesty 
had 30 of these galleys, you would be entire master 
of the coasts of England and France ; as 4000 men 
might be thrown on shore unexpectedly at any 
point ; and any place, however large, may be sacked 
by such a force if it be surprised." ^ 

So evident was the demoralisation in Philip's pre- 
parations, however, that close and well-informed ob- 
servers like the Venetian ambassador, Nani, expressed 
to his Government disbelief in the possibility of the 
Adelantado's expedition being intended to attack 
England, as "the English ships are far quicker and 
handier than the Spanish," and " the nature of the 
Spanish fleet is such that it is better suited for 
transport than for an attack on England, where they 
would find a fleet far superior to their own." For 
these reasons the ambassador believed that the real 
object was to attack the African port of Earache, or 
to convey a strong force to Brittany ; ^ whilst a few 
weeks afterwards (24th July 1597) the preparations 
were so backward and chaotic that the same am- 
bassador was of opinion that the preparations were 
only for defence, as many of the troops were being 
disbanded, " and the King's intentions about the 
attack on England are cooling down." The Adel- 

1 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv, and Britisli Museum, Add. 28,420. 

2 Nani to the Doge, June 1 597 (Venetian Calendar). 



256 TREASON AND PLOT 

antado, a hot-headed Catholic zealot, was in prin- 
ciple all for a crusade against the heretic, but was 
alternately despairing of going anywhere at all with 
such a force, and exalted with the idea that the 
sacredness of the cause would make up for all 
deficiencies. Philip himself was thought to be 
dying, though not even the Nuncio had the courage 
to tell him so ; but as he could only work inter- 
mittently, and not even the most trifling detail 
could be settled by any one else, almost complete 
paralysis had fallen upon his officers at the time 
that Essex, but for the unlucky Biscay gales, would 
have had the Spanish ports at his mercy. 

At length, when terrifying news came that the 
English had sailed in force again under Essex, and 
were first on the coasts of the Peninsula, and then 
cruising round the Azores to capture the treasure 
fleets, a last desperate efi'ort was made by the Adel- 
antado ; and the much-talked-of Spanish Armada of 
1597, all incomplete as it was, put to sea from 
Corunna on the i8th October (N.S.) ; but with a 
military force very diff'erent from that foreshadowed 
by Lopez de Soto's sanguine estimate.^ The season 
was late and stormy ; the preparations had been so 
long protracted that many of the ships were ex- 
tremely foul and worm-eaten ; but the orders of the 

1 The report sent by tlie Venetian Ambassador to the Doge (aStli 
October) says that the force that left Ferrol for Corunna consisted of :— 

44 royal galleons, of an aggregate tonnage of 12,686 tons. 

16 merchantmen, „ „ ,, 5880 „ 

52 German and Flemish hulks for stores, ,, 15,514 ,, 

76 small craft. 
This fleet was to have carried 8634 soldiers and 4000 sailors ; but as 
will be seen in the text, at least 600 of the former with 22 caravels 
failed to join from Lisbon. 



THE THIRD ARMADA, 1597 257 

King on this occasion, as before, were sternly per- 
emptory, notwithstanding the expressed unwilling- 
ness of the Adelantado to put to sea under the 
circumstances. Essex's fleet was known to be on 
the way home to England, and if it encountered 
that of the Adelantado, the latter was certain to be 
beaten, considering the bad morale of the Spaniards/ 

^ In a most interesting account of the expedition given by the 
confessor of the Adelantado, Father Sicilia, who was supposed to 
be a natural son of Philip II. (Venetian State Papers), he speaks of 
the "unwillingness to sail which filled the minds of every one, when 
they thought of the season far advanced, and of the absolute lack of 
all that was essential to the success of the enterprise." The ambassador, 
writing to the Doge after the return of the Adelantado's fleet, says that 
the whole blame of the failure was being cast on the Adelantado. The 
design, he said, which had been kept a close secret for two years, Avas 
now public ; and coidd never be attempted again. " However, im- 
partial persons know full well that this violent resolution could have 
met with no other result than it did. It was adopted rather on a 
punctilio than in hope of success. . . . The King was swept away by 
a passion for revenge for all these insults which he is constantly re- 
ceiving : and so in a bad season, with a weak Armada, and without 
waiting for reinforcements, he resolved to carry out his object, relying 
on the secret intelligences which he firmly believes lie has established 
in that island" (Venetian State Papers). A clue to the meaning of 
the last paragraph will be found in the voluntary confession of an 
English sailor named Love (State Papers, Domestic, April 20, 1598), 
who tells an extraordinary story. A Devonshire seaman called Captain 
Elliot, who commanded a flotilla of j^rivateers, in which Love sailed, 
appears to have been in close communication with Lord Beauchamp 
(eldest son of the Earl of Hertford by Katharine Grey, and con- 
sequently by the will of Henry VIII. heir to the crown of England), 
and much mysterious intercourse is detailed as having passed between 
them. Elliot captured a prize in the Channel and took her into 
Helford haven. To the dismay of the corsairs, they found the Queen's 
revenue-cutter there. The pirates thought they were caught red- 
handed, but Captain John Killigrew, who was in command at Fal- 
mouth, said they need have no fear : he would " square " matters with 
Captain Jonas for ^100, which he did, receiving as his own payment 
ten bolts of (stolen) HoUand cloth. Killigrew himself had bought the 
pirates' previous prize : and Elliot, after touching at Cork, then sef, 
sail for Corunna, riding thence post haste to see Philip, whom lie told 

P. 



258 TREASON AND PLOT 

Muddle reigned supreme from the first. A fly- 
boat was lost at the mouth of Coruuna harbour, two 
pinnaces were lost sight of immediately afterwards, 
and four others which were sent to Ferrol for a 
supply of biscuits never came back. Twenty-two 
decked caravels left behind at Lisbon to ship 600 
soldiers failed to join the fleet : but at length the 
Adelantado, with such forces as he had, came almost 
within sight of the Lizard on the 22nd October 
(N.S.), a fortnight before Essex landed at Plymouth 
(26th October O.S.). The day after the Adelantado's 
ships had lost sight of Spanish land, a pinnace was 
sent round the fleet with the King's final orders, 
which had been kept under secret seal until then. 
Philip, as the Venetian said, swayed by a thirst for 
vengeance alone, had listened to the tale of the false 
Englishman, and had altered his mind. He was no 
longer sending a halting aid to the Irish rebels. Un- 
warned by his dire experience of the past, in face 
of the wretched condition and insufiicient strength 
of his fleet, the utter demoralisation of his men and 
the faint-heartedness of his commanders, the King 
had for once forgotten his proverbial prudence, and 
had determined to stake everything, almost in his 
dying hours, upon one doubtful turn of fortune. 
And the orders that went round were, that in the 
name of God and St. James of Compostella, the 
fleet was to sail for Falmouth, which they w^ere to 

that he had "bought" Falmouth Castle from Captain Killigrew. 
Elliot and his men entered the Adelantado's fleet, and Elliot himself 
appears to have been the principal guide and inspirer of the expedition, 
the deponent Love acting as pilot to the flagship. Killigrew himself 
was cast into prison, protesting his innocence. There are several 
letters from him to Cecil, &c., in the Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. 



TO ATTACK FALMOUTH 259 

take by surprise, or by the betrayal of its com- 
mander, and a land force was to march towards 
Plymouth. 

Nothing short of desperation or a bigotry which 
blinded Philip to practical events could have dic- 
tated such orders at such a time if he had really 
meant to attempt to conquer England. His troops 
in France were straining every nerve to hold their 
own, whilst a peace inglorious for Spain was being 
patched up by priests and friars ; and it was almost 
certain that any serious aggressive action on the 
part of Philip against England would have pre- 
vented Henry IV. from consenting to a pacification, 
upon which the Spanish King's last remaining hopes 
were based. The favourite eldest daughter, whose 
promotion to a throne had been one of the passions 
of his life, was to marry her cousin, the Cardinal 
Archduke Albert, and to assume the sovereignty of 
the Spanish Netherlands. If the matter were not 
finally arranged before his death, which might 
happen any day, Philip's dearest wish might be 
frustrated, and he desired, of all things, that it 
should be carried through without delay. Whilst 
he was at war with France, and above all, if he 
launched into a new aggressive or invasive war 
against England as well, he could not hope to estab- 
lish the new sovereigns of Flanders, nor could they 
have withstood for a week the combined forces of 
Holland, France, and England, which in such case 
would certainly have been directed against them. 
Philip was absolutely yearning for peace before he 
died, and the conclusion forced upon us is, that 
his plan for seizing Falmouth by surprise, or by 



26o TREASON AND PLOT 

questionable betrayal witb a force so utterly in- 
adequate as that at the disposal of the Adelantado, 
was not meant for an attempt at the serious inva- 
sion or the conquest of England, but as a means 
of frightening Elizabeth into an arrangement with 
him at the same time as Henry IV/ 

Whether the Adelantado knew this or not is 
doubtful ; probablj'' he did not ; but he must have 
known, and all his company must have known, that 
to have landed his seven or eight thousand men, 
at most, on English soil, whilst an English fleet 
stronger than his own was on the sea between 
him and his bases of supply, would have been 
simply suicidal, both for troops and fleet. So, 
although we are told by one of the company,^ that 
on the King's orders being known, "joy filled each 
heart with content, and even the sick forgot their 
ailments," little joy was manifested when they 
reached the mouth of the Channel. There was a 

^ The French had in September recaptured Amiens from the 
Spaniards, and the Vatican, with Philip's connivance, was now 
making desperate efforts to bring about a peace between Spain and 
France, absolutely necessary for both countries. Elizabeth and the 
Dutch were furious at Henry's listening to such overtures without 
their consent. The Spanish King even offered to include Elizabeth 
in the treaty ; but, as will be related in the next chapter, on con- 
ditions quite impossible for England to accept. Still, the fact that 
Philip made the offer at all shows how desirous he was to leave his suc- 
cessor at peace, and tends to prove that the expedition of the Adelantado 
was never really intended for the conquest of England by invasion, 
but rather to alarm Elizabeth into the peace negotiation on the terms 
agreeable to Spain. 

2 Carrera, the Adelantado's courier. The Adelantado had continued 
to insist that he could not put to sea without great risk of losing the 
fleet, and had stood out strongly against the order to sail. When the 
news came to Spain that Essex was at the Azores, positive commands 
were sent to the Adelantado to sail immediately at any risk, "foi- the 
purpose of effecting a diversion." His orders were to land at Falmouth 



THE ARMADA DRIVEN BACK 261 

stiff head wind blowing, which soon showed up the 
weak points of the Spanish ships. "The admiraP 
wished to lie to, and see if the weather would mode- 
rate sufficiently to allow him to proceed. But seeing 
the wind freshening steadily, and a pinnace having 
brought word that the San Marco's seams had gaped 
under stress of the storm, he was obliged to stand 
by her. . . . He resolved to cruise about all night, 
keeping an eye on the weather, if it would allow 
him to push forward, and having all the fleet gath- 
ered about him. At this moment another pinnace 
arrived at the Adelantado's flagship, with news 
from the admiral that his foremast had been carried 
away, and as he could not hold on his course, he 
asked for orders. The Adelantado, recognising 
how dangerous it would be to risk the life of the 
admiral, of his oflicers, and the 70,000 ducats on 
board the galleon, gave orders that the admiral 
should put about, and, as best he could, make for 

and fortify himself, " on the site of the castles, neither of them of 
much importance, and then, leaving a sufficient garrison, he was to 
retire to the Scilly Isles, and await the return of the English fleet. If 
he learnt that the Spanish Indies flotilla had been captured, he was to 
give battle to the English ; and on winning a victory, as was expected, 
he was again to enter Falmouth and land the rest of his troops. From 
Falmouth he was to press forward and capture all he could." When 
the Adelantado returned, he assured Philip that if he had pushed on 
with his fleet in the weak unprovisioned state in which it was, he 
would have suffered more damage from the enemy than from the 
storm. The Adelantado was quite right. It Avas not on the cards 
for a moment that he could so entirely annihilate the English fleet 
as to have been able to go to Falmouth a second time, and quietly 
land his men. In any case, even if he had done so, they would have 
been caught like rats in a trap, from which they could not have 
escaped. (See report of Carrera, the Adelantado's courier, Father 
Sicilia, the Adelantado's confessor, and the letters of Nani to the 
Doge, all in the Venetian State Papers.) 
^ Don Diego Brochero. 



262 TREASON AND PLOT 

Spain." ^ We are told that the Adelantado waited 
until two hours after sunrise next morning (23rd 
October, N.S.), intending, as the weather would not 
allow him to approach Falmouth, to make for Nieu- 
port, or, if that was impossible, to run for Water- 
ford or Cork, or even Brest. But he decided at 
last that he could do nothing but get back to Spain 
as quickly as possible. This is the best story that 
his own apologetic confessor can make of it, but 
in another account by an eye-witness the picture of 
demoralisation is a more vivid one. " The Armada 
began to part company and to scatter [i.e. in the 
night of 22nd October), each one thinking of his 
own safety ; the sea unshipping their rudders, 
breaking their yards, carrying away their masts, 
and most gave themselves up for lost. For two 
days they knocked about without being able to 
make any harbour," and then, with a fair wind 
astern, they ingloriously sailed back in driblets 
to Corunna, beaten and cowed, though they had 
never seen an enemy nor fired a shot.^ 

It was Philip's last dying effort,^ and nothing 

1 Account of Father Sicilia (Venetian State Papers). 

'^ At first it was supposed that a large number of the ships had been 
lost, but most of them subsequently turned up in the various Spanish 
ports, though greatly damaged. The actual number totally wrecked 
seems to have been about ten vessels. An English spy in Spain re- 
ported on the return of the Armada to the coast : " There is nothing 
but confusion and stories of misfortune ; yet brags of what they will 
do before next spring " (State Papers, Dom., October 1 597). 

3 Philip was thought to be moribund for some days before the news 
of the failure reached his court. Paralysis had seized him, and he was 
only kept alive by the exertions of his devoted daughter, who blew 
liquid nourishment down his throat. The moment he regained con- 
sciousness he sighed, " Oh, will he never be ready ? What more can 
JIartin (i.e. Martin de Padilla, the Adelantado) want ? " (State Papers, 
Dom., October 1597). 



FRESH PRAYERS FROM CONNAUGHT 263 

shows more clearly than this how the boasted 
strength of sovereign and people had dwindled 
under his hidebound rule. For two years, as we 
have seen, this Armada had been painfully got 
together, under the innumerable difficulties that 
have been mentioned. That it should be scattered 
by the severe gale of the previous year was at least 
understandable. All fleets at the time were liable 
to such accidents ; but the head winds encountered 
in October 1597 were not sufficient reason for the 
utter abandonment of the objects of the expedition. 
The Spaniards had lost their crusading zeal, and 
they no longer had the moral stamina which alone 
had formerly warranted their sovereign's claim to 
dictate to Christendom the minutiae of its belief. 

The readiness of Tyrone to make friends with 
the English had aroused considerable distrust in 
Philip's mind, for he admitted no divided allegiance, 
and he knew that whilst O'Neil himself stood aside 
no rising in Ireland could hope to be successful 
against the English rule. After waiting impatiently 
all the winter (1596-97) for the promised Spanish 
aid, the Connaught chiefs despatched an envoy 
named Thomas Lalley in June 1597 to beg Philip 
to send them promptly the aid he had promised. 
But he brought no letter from Tyrone (or O'Donnell), 
and his demands, over and above the formal and 
general prayer for aid, were more concerned with 
the individual profit of his principals than with the 
final triumph of the Catholic cause. Thus Lalley' s 
father-in-law, James Kelly, writes to the King a 
bombastic letter, saying how much he and Lalley 
have done against the English, and begging for pen- 



264 TREASON AND PLOT 

sions on the strength of it. Mac William Bourke 
asks that "the land he holds, and all those he may 
acquire from the heretics, shall be secured to him 
in fee ; and that when the Spaniards arrive in Ire- 
land his clansmen shall be received into the King's 
service and be paid the same as Spanish soldiers. 
As he is the chief man in Connaught, he asks that 
he should be made governor of the province for the 
King of Spain." He requested that all Irish ships 
in Spanish ports belonging to English sympathisers 
should be confiscated, and the value of them given 
to Lalley to carry to Ireland.' It was demanded, 
too, that if Galway surrendered to the Spaniards, 
the whole of its privileges should be confirmed by 
them. Kelly not only petitioned for a large money 
grant for himself and Lalley, but that "all his 
people, and also his noble neighbours, should be 
confirmed in their privileges ; " and Lalley wanted 
a errant of "heretics'" land and some of the Kino's 
English prisoners to enable him to ransom a son of 
his in the hands of the Queen's Government 

Most of these personal petitions were readily con- 
ceded by Philip, for they were, with the exception 
of the pensions, which he did not grant, not at his 
own expense ; but upon the margin of the principal 
letter from MacWilliam Bourke speaking of Spanish 
armed aid to the Catholic cause, Philip scrawled an 
ominous direction that they " should be encouraged 
Avith generalities." We know what that meant in 
his vocabulary, and Tyrone certainly appraised at 

1 This petition, which, was granted by Philip " as they are enemies' 
ships," would practically put a stop to the considerable business carried 
on between Ireland and Spain, as most of the merchants, traders, and 
citizens were on the .^ide of the English. 



COBOS AGAIN AT KILLIBEGS 265 

their true value the bland " generalities " of the 
Spaniards. He had grown more and more free 
with his talk of composition and pledges as the 
winter wore on and the spring brought no Spanish 
force to his aid. But though with words of loyalty 
ever on his lips, there was no possibility of mis- 
taking his rebellious spirit behind the mask. Lord- 
Deputy Russell insisted upon being relieved of the 
government. "He would not," he said, "have 
petitioned to be revoked if he could have found any 
good tokens of desire in Tyrone to be a subject. 
The Earl abuseth the commissioners to win time 
till the Spaniards come" (March 6, 1597, Irish 
State Papers) ; and though Norreys was all for 
making such terms as would satisfy Tyrone, it was 
mainly from a brave soldier's impatience at the petty 
persecution and injustice which self-seeking civilians 
and clerical politicians in Dublin inflicted upon the 
Irish, making rebellion almost inevitable, whilst the 
preparations to combat it were quite inadequate.^ 

At the end of March there was a great scare that 
twenty Spanish ships had entered Killibegs with 
men, arms, and money, and that Tyrone had gone 
down to meet them, issuing a proclamation calling 
for recruits at i2d. per day wages, which Fenton 
thought might attract most of the Irish soldiers in 
the English pay, though he still did not believe that 
the •' Irishry " would allow any Spanish army to 
invade Ireland. Gradually the twenty Spanish ships 



I The appointment of Sir John Norreys as Lord-Depvity was much 
desired by Tyrone, who said that if it was made all questions could be 
settled. The appointment of Lord Borough, he said, made him de- 
spair of fair dealing (March 20, 1597. State Papers, Ireland). 



266 TREASON AND PLOT 

dwindled to one small pinnace ^ with some powder 
and messages of encouragement, more "generalities," 
from the King. Even O'Donnell, who was still in 
rebellion, was disgusted at this paltering, and re- 
fused even to speak to Cobos until the latter had 
been taken to see Tyrone. The Earl was cool and 
dignified. He had made peace with the Queen of 
England, he said, and meant to keep it, and he 
swore a " great oath " to the English Captain 
Warren, "that if all the Spaniards in Spain should 
come into Ireland, they could not alter his mind 
from being a dutiful subject to her Majesty if 
promise were kept to him." " 

When the new Viceroy, Borough, arrived in May, 
the Earl was just as emphatic to him. He was, he 
said, as he always had been, ready to make his sub- 
mission, "He did not look for any Spaniards, and 
he would not join with any foreign nation against 
his natural prince. The Spaniards are a nation only 
for themselves and for none other;" whilst O'Donnell 
himself, in his bitter disappointment at the insigni- 
ficant aid sent in the one ship to Killibegs, told 

^ The most extravagant and lying reports were sent to the English 
on this subject. .James Barnewall wrote, on April 3, that twelve 
Spanish vessels had arrived, and that Tyrone was gathering vast 
quantities of cattle to feed the Spaniards. On the same day a spy, 
signing his name " TafF," reported that Tyrone had secretly threatened 
great penalty to any one who should mention the coming of the 
Spaniards, of whom 1000 had landed, with bishops and priests and a 
great store of armour and munition. Then eight Spanish ships had 
arrived in Loch Foyle ; and these or similar misstatements were con- 
tinued far into the summer. 

2 The Lord President of Munster to the Viceroy, &c,, March 28, 
1 597 (State Papers, Irish). Tyrone, in evidence of his desire to please 
the English, sent formal notice to the Viceroy that the Spaniards had 
informed him of a great force being prepared in Spain under the 
Adelantado to be sent into Ireland. 



IRISH DISAPPOINTMENT 267 

Cobos "that the Spaniards were but a deceitful 
nation and they had cosened the Irish. After all 
his promises the King of Spain had sent them 
nothing but a little powder. The Irish knew that 
all that the King could do was little enough to 
strengthen himself against the Queen of England, 
and it were good for them (the Irish) to depend no 
longer upon the King's succour." 

But with all these professions against the Spaniards 
the relations between the English and the Irish 
chiefs grew ever more strained. The last hope 
of a permanent peaceful settlement vanished when 
Borough was appointed Viceroy. Tyrone always 
made his loyalty dependent upon the English pro- 
mises being kept to him, and the rights of the Irish 
respected.^ Borough would have no parley in such 
matters as good faith and justice. Repentance, he 
told Tyrone, was his only course. It mattered not 
to the English how much or how little he depended 
upon the Spaniards. Complete submission to the 
Queen's mercy, not only of him, but of all the Irish 
chieftains, was the only road to peace. This tone 
made an arrangement impossible, for the grossest 
bad faith had been practised towards the Irish 
leaders. Bingham, the scourge of Connaught, was 

1 Early in this year the Countess of Tyi'one's lady-in-waiting reported 
to the English that the Earl had said, when he had submitted to the 
Queen, " That he had done it to serve his own turn, as they have done 
it to serve theirs ; but let me be hanged and confusion come to all my 
posterity if ever I trust either to pardon or aught else that they may 
offer, for 1 know the Council of England to be arrant knaves and 
heretics, to whom there is no more credit to be given than to the 
veriest infidels in the world. I will keep myself out of their fingers 
till time serve, and then, perad venture, they shall have more of me " 
(Irish State Papers, February 12, 1597). 



268 TREASON AND PLOT 

still unpunished, truces were broken with impunity 
by the English, the hostages given by the chiefs 
were still held tightly, even after stipulations had 
been fulfilled, and Tyrone boldly prepared now to 
face the inevitable and, with or without Spanish aid, 
to head the Irish against English rule. 

Feagh MacHugh once more went out rieving and 
ravaging until he fell into the hands of the English, 
and Russell, as the last act of his viceroyalty, sent 
in May the head of the Leinster rebel in pickle to 
Queen Elizabeth, who was greatly indignant at the 
gift.^ But the raids into the Pale still went on, and 
the black clouds of the coming great rebellion banked 
higher and higher in the north and west. Tyrone 
and O'Donnell, in close union now, were busy in 
their inaccessible fastnesses of bog and mountain 
gathering their friends for the life and death struggle 
of the coming year. For one short period after the 
death of Borough in October peace vv^as made, at 
least in appearance. Borough had obtained a some- 
what important success over Tyrone's forces on the 
Blackwater in the summer, and had pressed the rebel 
hard — the running beast, as he called him — until 
death put an end to the stern Lord-Deputy's efforts. 
O'Rourke resented the too openly asserted overlord- 
ship of O'Donnell, and was inclined to submit to the 
English conditions, and the Connaught men gener- 
ally were not enthusiastic in the support of a move- 
ment which, unless Spain took the lead, would make 

1 Sir Kobert Cecil writing to the new Viceroy, Borough : " Her 
Majesty . . . ia surely not well contented that the head of so base a 
Robin Hood should be sent so solemnlj'- to England, It is no such 
trophy of a notorious victory, and yet his friends make great advantage 
of it here" (Cecil to Borough, Irish State Papers, May 26, 1597). 



TYRONE STANDS ALONE 269 

an Ulsterman paramount over them/ So Tyrone 
considered it wise to make a two-months' truce in 
the winter with the Earl of Ormonde, commissioned 
by the Queen. But his demeanour was vastly 
changed from his former courtliness. When the 
parley took place, "he stationed his forces on several 
hills in proud and insolent manner," as if to threaten 
the Queen's representatives ; and w^hen he was asked 
what pledges he proposed to give for his future good 
behaviour, he told them they held his hostages 
already. Then breaking out he said, " I know what 
you mean. You want one or both of my sons. I 
had rather see them dead." He told them bitterly 
how he had been held in silken bondage and made an 
Englishman, whilst his father's enemy, Tirlogh, was 
raised to the chieftainship by the Queen's Govern- 
ment. And thus haughtily he contested point by 
point of his demand,^ bating nothing, and the sus- 

^ We liave seen a manifestatiou of this in the desire expressed in 
their petitions sent hj Thomas Lally, stipulating that their lands should 
be held by them in direct fee-simple from Philip himself. 

^ Tyrone's conditions do not appear to mo'lern eyes very imreason- 
able : — 

1. He demanded freedom of conscience of all Irishmen. 

2. Her Majesty's full pardon to himself and his adherents, and the 
restoration of himself in blood and dignity by Act of Parliament. 

3. That it may please her Majesty, for that the abuses of her bad 
officers hath been the beginning of all these troubles, and the Irishry 
cannot away with the rigour of the law upon every small occasion, 
their bringing up being barbarous, to grant unto his Lordship authority 
that Tyrone may be made a County Palatine, as the like is granted to 
others in Ireland. 

4. The withdrawal of all Englisli garrisons from Tyrone "and all 
other parts of the Irishry, for they are so terrified that they will not 
account themselves in safety so long as her Majesty's forces are so near 
at hand." 

5. That all his adherents should be included in the arrangement, and 



270 TREASON AND PLOT 

pension of hostilities that resulted hardly pretended 
to be a peace. Tyrone had made up his mind to 
fight, but to fight for his own hand, and no longer, if 
he could avoid it, as a vassal of the King of Spain. 
So long as he held to that resolution effective help 
from Philip was impossible, and Tyrone hoped to do 
without it. We shall see in a subsequent chapter 
how he was driven by circumstances again to link 
his cause with that of Catholic supremacy. 

be confirmed in their hereditary possessions, the Moores and Connors 
also to have a reasonable portion of their predecessors' land. 

6. That the former hostages he had given should be restored to him, 
new ones being given (Irish State Papers, December 23, 1597). 



CHAPTEE IX 

The two sections of English Catholics and the succession — Arabella 
Stuart versus the Infanta — Lord Beauchamp — Party conflicts in 
England with regard to the peace with Spain — The aims of the 
Jesuits — Paralysis of the Spanish naval administration- — Renewed 
alarm in England — Its groundlessness — Parleys with Tyrone — 
His renewed appeals to Spain — Critical condition of the English 
rule in Ireland — The battle of Armagh. 

The repeated threats and attempts at the invasion 
of England and Ireland by Spain, and the constant 
intercommunication between the disaffected Irish 
chiefs and Philip's Government, had now (1597-98) 
completed the estrangement of the majority of Eng- 
lish Catholics at home and abroad from the irre- 
concilable Jesuit faction. The string upon which 
the latter had always harped was the natural repug- 
nance of Englishmen to submit their country to the 
yoke of a Scottish king ; but so long as Elizabeth 
persisted in her strong determination to allow no 
official decision or discussion as to her successor, 
there were other alternatives open besides King- 
James and the Infanta, and every political move 
of the last four years of the Queen's reign was 
influenced by the open and covert intrigues which 
were actively proceeding for the reversion of the 
crown of England. 

The Catholics in the country were still very nume- 
rous, especially in the north, notwithstanding the 
ruthless persecution of priests and recusants since 



272 TREASON AND PLOT 

1593, whilst the openly demonstrated dislike of the 
Queen to the Puritans and to a frankly Protestant 
service, kept alive the hope amongst the professors 
of the ancient faith that some measure of toleration 
might after all be conceded to them. But it must 
have been evident to them that the much-longed-for 
end could never be attained whilst to their religion 
was attached the reproach of disloyalty to the Queen, 
whose successful rule had made her personally 
powerful beyond any of her predecessors : and the 
English Catholics as a body, with their leaders the 
secular priests, tried by might and main to convince 
the Government that they had neither part nor lot 
in the attempts at foreign invasion or in the murder- 
plots, genuine and otherwise, which were so much 
talked of by the few extremists in Flanders. Unfor- 
tunately for the success of their cause, these loyal 
Catholics were themselves divided, and possessed no 
chief of sufficient authority and character to unite 
them for a common end ; the energies and attention 
of their priestly leaders being entirely occupied in 
the long and violent altercation with the Jesuit 
faction, which sprang out of the old dispute, and 
came to a head in England in what is called the 
Wisbech Stirs. ^ Whilst such men as Dr. Bagshaw, 



1 The first open rupture amongst the Catholic priests under arrest at 
Wisbech took place in 1595, when the Jesuit Father Weston, disgusted, 
as he says, with the " whoring, drunkenness, and dicing " that went 
on, was elected by eighteen of the priests who thought like himself, 
"agent" or superintendent, and drew up rules for the decent govern- 
ment of the prisoners. A minority, led by Dr. Bagshaw, repudiated 
liis elective authority, and a violent quarrel ensued. A temporary 
reconciliation was patched up at the end of the year 1595 by Dr. 
Dudley and Father Mush, but matters soon became more strained than 
ever. The priests desired the appointment of a bishop with the Papal 



ENGLISH CATHOLICS DIVIDED 273 

Fathers Mush and Bluet were hurling vituperation 
at the Jesuits, and Fathers Persons and Lister were 
repaying them with interest, the vital question for 
them of the future religion of England was being 
quietly settled behind their backs by clever poli- 
ticians, who were practically of no religion at all. 

Probably the majority of the "loyal" Catholics, 
if it had been possible to poll them, would have 
declared in favour of the succession of the King of 
Scotland, whose artful professions of adhesion to 
Rome and the known Catholicism of his wife had 
greatly influenced the Papal, Italian, and French 
Churchmen, who dreaded an increase of Spanish 
power. We have seen how persistently this section 
of Catholics had worked ever since the death of 
Mary Stuart to attain their ends, and how they had 
been effectually checkmated by the political power 
and money of Philip, whose main point of policy 
was the exclusion of James at any cost. As the 
Queen's age increased, and the demise of the crown 
became ever more imminent, however, it is not sur- 

episcopal authority over all the Catholic clergy, but this the Jesuits 
prevented, and late in 1597 the English seculars drew up a passionate 
exposure of the Jesuit aims and methods for presentation to the Pope ; 
but Persons, as we have seen in the text, had gone to Rome to quell 
the cognate disturbances in the English College there, and persuaded 
Cardinal Gaetano, the "Protector" of England at the Vatican, to 
appoint Father Blackwell, a known ally of the Jesuits, Archpriest over 
the English clergy. The dignity was a new one ; the appointment was 
underhand and irregular, and a large number of English secular priests 
rebelled at once. Fathers Bishop and Charnock were sent to Rome to 
lay their grievances before the Pope in 1598, but on their arrival 
there they were arrested by the influence of the Jesuits, and their 
prayer was angrily rejected by the Pope. Thenceforward the battle 
between Jesuits and seculars went on for years with increasing bitter- 
ness. The effects of this dispute upon the progress of events in Eng- 
land will be noted in the text as they occur. 

S 



274 TREASON AND PLOT 

prising that efforts should have been made by the 
friends of other possible candidates, and by those 
Englishmen who, whilst indignant at the idea of 
submission to Spain, hated the idea of a Scottish 
King ruling over what they considered the superior 
nation, to discover some means of obtaining their 
desires under a native sovereign. By the will of 
Henry VIII. the heir to the throne was Lord Beau- 
champ, the elder son of the Earl of Hertford, by 
Katharine Grey, granddaughter of Mary Tudor, 
Duchess of Suffolk ; but Hertford was timid and 
unenterprising ; his marriage with Kathaiine was 
of very doubtful legality, and in the case of his 
father, the Protector Somerset, he had witnessed the 
danger of aiming too high. His son had, therefore, 
fallen into the background as a possible candidate, 
and the strong Protestant traditions of the family 
would not be likely in any case to recommend him 
to Catholics. Descending from Eleanor, the second 
daughter of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, were 
the Earls of Derby and Cumberland, the former of 
whom had frequently been mentioned, especially 
by his kinsman Sir William Stanley, as a suitable 
claimant for Catholics to adopt before the Infanta's 
candidature was openly announced. He, however, 
it will be recollected, had repudiated the approaches 
made to him by Hesketh (p. 102), and for the 
present stood aside. 

The only other serious claimant was Lady Ara- 
bella Stuart, the daughter of Darnley's younger 
brother, Charles, Earl of Lennox, and consequently 
first cousin to James VI. She lived with her 
imperious old maternal grandmother, the Countess 



ARABELLA STUART 275 

Dowager of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick), at this 
time almost like a State prisoner, for she had 
offended the Queen by her pride, her fiightiness, and 
the constant hints at political and foreign intrigues 
of which she was to be made an instrument She 
was now a self-willed, passionate, clever young 
woman, in her twenty-third year, angrily resenting 
the severe restraint under which she suffered. In a 
later chapter we shall see the extraordinary and un- 
explained mystery in which she involved herself. 
Her hysterical hints at some great State secret, com- 
bined with a love affair in which she was the princi- 
pal person, made most people think her mad ; but 
though she talked in riddles — in evident imitation 
of the Queen herself — there was probably much 
more behind her babble than was believed at the 
time or since. Sir William Stanley, in one of his 
boasting conversations in Flanders in 1594, had said 
that he should soon be in the service of a lady in 
England, and when asked what lady, he replied, 
Lady Arabella ; and in a letter written in October of 
the same year from. Francis Derrick, one of the 
English refugees in Flanders, to one Henry Wick- 
ham, a " servant " of Essex, we catch a glimpse of 
some important negotiation about her. On page 
221 reference is made in the address of Father 
Persons to the King to an agent named Sterell, who 
had been sent twice during the previous winter 
(1595) by certain English Earls to Flanders. Sterell 
was a member of the household of the Earl of Wor- 
cester, who, although he was not of royal blood, was 
afterwards, as we shall see, the favourite native 
candidate for the crown at the Spanish court ; and 



276 TREASON AND PLOT 

his servant, Sterell, who acted as spy in England for 
the English refugees in Elanders, was really in the 
pay of Phellips, the Government spy-master. From 
the series of letters from Derrick above referred to, 
it is evident that Sterell's mission from the " Earls " 
in 1595 had reference to Arabella Stuart. 

Political quidnuncs had proposed all sorts of 
matches for her since her early childhood ; but in 
1 59 1 we get in touch with a really important secret 
negotiation, in which some of the highest English 
nobility were evidently concerned, and which, if we 
could get at the bottom of it, would explain many 
things now obscure. Moody, who was a Catholic 
agent in the Netherlands in the interests of Essex, 
wrote to the Earl in October 1591,^ asking whether 
he knew of a negotiation that was being carried on 
by one Barnes^ "touching the Lady Arabella," and 
begging Essex to send him her portrait, " as there 
was some one there (in Flanders) very desirous of see- 
ing it." This some one was the Duke of Parma ; and 
the plan of the moderate party was to bring about a 
peace and alliance by marrying Arabella to E-anuccio, 
the eldest son of Parma, whose descent gave him a 
better claim than that of Philip to the English 
crown, and to assure the sovereignty of Flanders to 
Parma independent of Spain. This would have 
been a master-stroke of policy, for it would effectu- 
ally have shut the French out of Flanders, and have 
given England a preponderant voice there, whilst 
freeing her from all apprehension from Spain. To 

1 Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 144. 

2 This was tlie name of a man used by Sir R. Cecil for the transmis- 
sion of spy letters. See letter from Paget to Cecil, April 27, 1598 
(State Papers, Dom.). 



ARABELLA STUART 277 

Moody a reply was sent by a scribe of Essex's/ that. 
the latter knew nothing of the negotiation in ques- 
tion, but would be glad to hear more about it from 
the spy. That Arabella's portrait by Hilliard was 
sent for Ranuccio's inspection is known,^ but the 
affair was promptly nipped in the bud, as may be 
imagined, when it came to the ears of Essex ; and 
the innocent lady herself was sent from court to 
the semi-imprisonment of Hardwick Hall under the 
keeping of her gorgon grandmother. 

By the efforts, doubtless, of her young Catholic 
aunt, the Countess of Shrewsbury, who was her 
great friend, and some of her Talbot and Cavendish 
uncles, however, it is clear, as we have seen, that 
communications were again opened in the autumn 
of 1594 between Arabella's friends and the Anglo- 
Spanish fugitives in Flanders. The Spanish Govern- 
ment was assured that she was a Catholic ; ^ and in 
the letters from Derrick to Wickham, already 
referred to (October 1594), the latter is informed 
that the proposal with regard to Arabella is accepted, 
and that all communications are to pass through the 
hands of Father Sherwood. With the formal adop- 
tion of the Infanta's claim shortly afterwards by the 
Spanish party, the candidature of Arabella was 
temporarily dropped by them, but at the time of 
which we are now writing (1598), a considerable 
number of English Catholics had come round again 
to the idea that an arrangement for peace and 
alliance with the new sovereign of Flanders, / 1 



1 Hatfield Papers, vol. iv. p. 156. 
- Miss Bradley's Life and Letters of Arabella Stuart. 
^ Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. She professed to be a Puritan in 
England. 



278 TREASON AND PLOT 

which the marriage and succession of Arabella to 
the English throne should form a part, would be a 
good solution of all their troubles.^ This was a 
return to the old idea of the Cecils. An English 
sovereign in close alliance, politically or matrimoni- 
ally, or both, with a " Duke of Burgundy," reigning 
in Flanders independently of Spain, would be a 
renewal of the balance of power in Europe, which 
had held good for centuries until disturbed by the 
calamity of the marriage of the heiress of Aragon 
and Castile with the heir of Burgundy. It was 
instinctively felt, too, that the Infanta's chance of 
winning England by Spanish arms would grow less 
than ever on her father's approaching death. Her 
half-brother, the new king, would certainly not 
plunge his already bankrupt country deeper into the 
slough to win a crown for a relative whom he dis- 
liked ; and the new dominion of Flanders that 
would fall to the Infanta and her husband, the 
Cardinal Archduke, would occupy all their attention, 
without the need for seeking risk and adventure 
elsewhere. 

So as the star of the Infanta waned in England, 
that of Arabella Stuart seemed to rise, and the party 
of "loyal" Catholics was thus further divided by the 
adhesion of a section to the candidature of the King 
of Scots, whilst another portion was secretly working 

^ An English Catholic refugee in Flanders writes to Cecil (State 
Papers, Dom., February lo, 1598), when sending him a book: "The 
bearer will inform you how different our cogitations be from what our 
adversaries would make the world believe. We desire peace, and only 
wish these two kingdoms might flourish again in the old amity." This 
is one of many similar declarations to be found in the State Papers at 
this period. 



RIVAL CLAIMANTS 279 

for Arabella Stuart/ The mesh of the intrigue was 
tangled in the extreme, and will probably never be 
entirely unravelled ; but this much may be adduced 
from the evidence which will be quoted in its proper 
chronological order : that some of the most power- 
ful of the nobility of England before the Queen's 
death intended, with Spanish support, to raise Ara- 
bella and a fit husband to the throne jointly on 
the demise of the crown : that Cecil and some of 
the Howards were cognisant of this plan and did 
not oppose it, their intention from the first being 
to betray it and sacrifice their friends ; and that 
Essex with his Puritan party, being naturally ex- 
cluded from participation in such a scheme, did his 
best to frustrate it, and was himself crushed in the 
attempt. 

We have seen (p. 257) that when Captain Elliott 
left the Cornish coast in the summer of 1597 on his 
treasonable voyage to Spain to direct the Adelantado's 
fleet to Falmouth, he was in close communication with 
Lord Beauchamp, the heir to the crown by the will 
of Henry VIII. ; and Elliott subsequently expressed 
his regret that he had not carried the nobleman to 



1 An intercepted bundle of letters quoted in State Papers, Dom., 
May 1598, contained a letter dated February 1597 from an English 
Catbolic in Spain, speaking of tbe going of the Adelantado's fleet to 
England, says : " When the fleet would be ready, as they prayed for 
the day when the good Prince of Spain might be placed in England 
and married to the gentlewoman there, so that they (the refugees) 
might go and end their lives in their own country." This suggestion 
for a marriage between the young Philip III. and Arabella was pro- 
bably nothing but loose talk. We know it was never seriously intended 
by Spain, but doubtless it had many well-wishers amongst the Spanish 
party of English Catholics, and perhaps was one of the dreams of 
Arabella herself. 



28o TREASON AND PLOT 

Spain with him/ At the same period Father Cecil, 
writing from Madrid to the Earl of Essex, told him 
of the project of carrying "two great personages" 
out of England, Father Gordon, the Jesuit uncle of 
Huntly, having informed him some time before 
" that Lady Arabella was shortly to be conveyed to 
Spain." When Father Cecil arrived in Spain, he 
had met there a Captain North, who had been sent 
on this business, and who said that Arabella her- 
self was in favour of it, " her common speech being 
that she thought no match in England good enough 
for her." North asserted that he had been sent by 
her to Eome, Germany, and Spain on his matri- 
monial errand, and had negotiated with the younger 
Archduke Albert, the son of Archduke Charles. A 
suggestion at the same time was made by one 
Sakill in Spain to carry thither the eldest sister 
of the Earl of Derby; but Father Cecil very justly 
observes that no favour was likely to be intended 
to these pretenders, "but to lessen the number of 
their (the Spaniards') antagonists, and to reserve 
them, in any event, in case their own card {i.e. the 
Infanta) should fail them." 

These various suggestions for aiding the Infanta's 
cause by cajoling or kidnapping to Spain rival 
English claimants probably never passed beyond 
the stage of harebrained schemes : but it is certain 
that any effort that Essex, James Stuart, or the 
French could make to prevent an arrangement with 

^ In a letter written by the sugan Earl of Desmond to the King of 
Spain in 1599, printed in Pacata Hibernia, he mentions that a certain 
Captain Roche would have carried the heir-apparent of the crown of 
England to Spain, but that he had been betrayed by his own men. 
This probably refers to the plan for abducting Lord Beauchamp. 



DYNASTIC INTRIGUES 281 

the Archduke in Flanders, which would also have 
the effect of bringing Arabella to the front, would 
be exerted to the utmost. The mere suggestion of 
such a thing set a flood of gossip loose about the 
intention of Henry IV. himself to marry Arabella, 
with the blessing of Elizabeth and the acknowledged 
succession to the English crown. This alarmed the 
Spaniards, and probably explains their renewed ap- 
proaches to Arabella at this period (1597-98). It 
was obvious, however, that the Cecil party and 
Elizabeth herself would never countenance such an 
arrangement ; and when Henry IV. had made peace 
with Spain and settled upon his Italian marriage, 
the purely Spanish party had no further use for 
Arabella until the Infanta's candidature for the 
crown was finally dropped. At a later period, as 
we shall see, the Spanish interest coalesced to some 
extent with the traditionary conservative elements 
in England itself, as against the Scottish, Italian, 
French, and English Puritan interests, which sided 
with James's candidature. It was the cunning 
secrecy of Cecil towards the moderate party that 
his father and he had created which finally raised 
James to the throne, with Cecil as his all-powerful 
Minister, and extinguished the high hopes of Ara- 
bella Stuart and others. 

The efforts of the two divergent interests were 
clearly seen during the negotiations for peace in the 
winter of 1 597-98. After the recapture of Amiens by 
the French in the autumn, it was quite evident that 
both France and Spain were utterly exhausted, and 
could fight no more. The Pope and the general of 
the Cordeliers had long been striving to bring about 



282 TREASON AND PLOT 

peace, and at length their overtures were listened 
to. Henry IV. obtained all he wanted or could ask 
for, a return territorially to the status quo in 1559, 
and there was no reason for him to continue fight- 
ing. It will be remembered, however, that he had 
pledged himself positively by the treaty of 1596, 
which had so much offended Lord Burghley, to make 
no separate peace without including Elizabeth and 
the States ; and a hundred questions were raised by 
the English before they would consent to join in 
such negotiations. It was a vital matter for Henry ; 
and the Pope told him that he need keep no faith 
with heretics ; but the gallant Bearnais determined 
to make an effort to include his allies in the treaty, 
in pursuance of his pledge. His envoy, De Maisse, 
came to England in December 1597 to persuade 
Elizabeth to join in the negotiations. Essex had 
long been in disgrace, and his first sulky appearance 
at court coincided with the presence of De Maisse. 
He was, of course, all for prosecuting the war with 
renewed vigour, for sending Henry large subsidies, 
and so forth ; for he dreaded, as did Henry himself, 
that Elizabeth and Burghley would now revert to 
the traditional policy and themselves make a sepa- 
rate peace with Spain, leaving France out. De 
Maisse was received by Elizabeth four times, and 
even then, in her old age, the consummate skill and 
invincible vanity which had made her the great 
Queen she was showed more conspicuously than 
ever. She bared her withered bosom to the pit of 
the stomach for the Frenchman's delectation ; ^ she 

^ Journal de Maisse, Archives Affaires Etrangeres. Quoted by Prevot 
Paradol. 



RIVAL ENGLISH PARTIES 283 

talked of her foolishness and ugliness to provoke 
compliments, which she swallowed ; she apologised 
for her dowdiness when she was clothed in silver 
tissue and loaded with jewels. She was coquettish, 
gay, frivolous, and indelicate ; but she was dignified, 
and keenly alert when the question of English inte- 
rests was at issue, and she lost no point in the game. 
De Maisse saw that she was playing with him, and 
at length he told Lord Burghley that the long delay 
in giving him an answer, yea or nay, as to the Queen's 
willingness to negotiate for peace, relieved his master 
of his pledges to refrain from making a separate 
treaty. It was impossible, Elizabeth said, for her 
to negotiate finally with an Archduke ; she could 
only make peace with the King of Spain himself; and 
how could she tell that the Archduke's powers were 
sufiicient even to negotiate ? All this was simply to 
delay, whilst she aroused the fears of the Dutch, and 
played her own game during the month or more that 
De Maisse was being kept dangling about Whitehall. 
Both he and his master knew that the " loyal " 
English Catholics in Flanders, under the leader- 
ship of Charles Paget, were busy with separate 
negotiations between Elizabeth and the Archduke 
himself. 

Approaches had been made by Cecil's agent, 
Barnes, for an understanding in the previous year, 
but had been rejected by the Archduke ; but on the 
26th December (1597) Paget wrote to Cecil, at the 
Archduke's request, expressing a desire for a friendly 
settlement with England, and thenceforward a brisk 
exchange of notes took place. In one of the last State 
Papers that old Lord Burghley wrote, he sets down 



284 TREASON AND PLOT 

by his favourite method, in opposing cohimns, the 
advantages and disadvantages of a peace as pro- 
posed by France. It would be an advantage that 
France should have Calais restored ; but it would be a 
disadvantage that the English could not then hope to 
recover it. English trade and wealth would be vastly 
increased by a peace, and the Queen could then 
" avoid the insolence of the King of Scots ; " but it 
would be inconvenient to suddenly disband so many 
soldiers. The main difficulty, however, was that 
the Dutch States would not listen to any peace in 
which their absolute independence was not assured, 
and this Spanish pride would not brook. It was, 
moreover, not to the advantage of England that the 
new Republic should become friendly with France 
and at peace with Spain, for that would have left 
England isolated indeed now that Henry was a 
Catholic. So, although Sir Robert Cecil went on a 
hollow embassy to France, he did nothing but re- 
proach Henry for his desertion of his allies ; and 
whilst on the one hand the States were encouraged 
by Elizabeth to continue their resistance a outrance^ 
the English Government on the other became more 
and more amiable to the Archduke, and the hopes 
of all sections of "loyal" English Catholics rose 
higher and higher. 

Their plans were various, and mostly visionary. 
Constable, the ardent young poet in France, was full 
of the notion that he could by persuasion convert 
the Queen herself^ Charles Paget had a proposal 
to request Henry IV., as one of the conditions of 
peace, to urge upon the Pope the withdrawal of 

> Petit to Phellips, State Papers, Dom., October 21, 1597. 



THE MODERATE CATHOLICS 285 

all the Jesuits from England, prohibiting them to 
return. In a violent attack upon the Jesuit methods 
he says to Cecil, " I can assure you that the prin- 
cipal Catholics, both in England and on this side of 
the sea, that have longest endured for the cause will 
be glad thereof, for as the said Catholics will not 
receive them (the Jesuits) in their houses, they are 
termed by the Jesuits 'politics' or old Catholics."^ 
He assured Cecil that it would not be difficult to 
persuade the Pope to do this, " for if Persons had 
not gone to Rome just when he did, with great re- 
commendations from Spain, it would have been done 
before." The idea evidently was that, if Jesuit 
methods were banished from England, and the loyalty 
of the mass of the English Catholics was demon- 
strated, toleration for their religion would follow. 
The foreign Catholics of the King of Scots' party 
also were not idle. Cardinal Malvasia, the Nuncio, 
whom we saw conferring with Pury Ogilvie in 
Brussels, submitted (October 1597) a long discourse 
to the Pope in favour of investing James with the 
crown of England, on the assurance that both the 
King and his wife would be " converted." " But 
to execute this plan the Pope should recall from 
England all Jesuits, and such priests as are known 
to be of the contrary faction, leaving only those who 
are in favour of the Scot." The same informer (Petit) 
says that Lord Dacre had gone to France, hoping to 
make his peace with Elizabeth, and his son was to 
follow him ; " and some day the Earl of West- 
moreland will take the same course. They like her 
Majesty's religion better than they like the Scot" 

^ State Papers, Dom., June 1598. 



2 86 TREASON AND PLOT 

It must have been evident now to all English 
Catholics that the Jesuit plan of forcing Catholic 
supremacy upon England by violent aggressive action 
and foreign invasion had resulted in utter failure. 
As each successive loudly vaunted Spanish fleet had 
crept back baffled and disgraced, not only had the 
growing impotence of Spain been proclaimed to the 
scofiing world, but the popular Queen and the 
Protestant cause had become stronger in their con- 
fidence to resist attack. The Catholic cause at the 
same time had grown increasingly odious to the 
mass of Englishmen, because it had been possible to 
blacken it by connecting it with treason and lack of 
patriotism. This had been the cause of the ruin of 
the Catholic League in France, and had ended there 
in the triumph of the Moderates, with religious 
toleration under a mild Catholic supremacy, and the 
expulsion of Jesuits from the realm. It was no 
wonder, therefore, that the English Catholics should 
be anxious, by a somewhat similar process, to obtain 
at least toleration, and to dissever themselves from 
extreme methods and aims which, after eighteen 
years of constant effort, had only brought to them 
increased sufferings, and had rendered ultimate suc- 
cess more hopeless than ever. The great majority 
of the Catholics would have been content now to 
work for freedom of religious observance, trusting 
that time, patience, and opportunity might at some 
future time enable them to gain the upper hand in 
the State ; and, as we have seen, even many of those 
who had grown old in exile were wishful for a re- 
conciliation which should restore them to the land 
of their birth and to their duty as subjects, whilst 



JESUITS OPPOSE TOLERATION 287 

assuring them against persecution on account of 
their faith. 

But compromise, or any other agreement with the 
" heretic," was of all things that least desired by the 
Jesuit faction/ Domination of the State was what 
they aimed at, in which the whole national life was 
to be bound up with and subjected to the sole over- 
lordship of Christ — of whom they were the officers. 
Kings, potentates, even popes, were to be dwarfed 
finally by the rule of Christ alone ; and when Jesuits 
served kings, as they served Philip, it was only for 
the purpose of using his power to humble in the 
long run the caste to which he belonged. No doubt 
the Dominican order had similar dreams, with the 
Inquisition as its instrument in Spain, but the secular 
sovereigns had been able to turn this great engine 
to their own ends. The Society of Jesus was founded 
on principles specially devised to prevent this in its 
own case ; and it was perfectly consistent with those 
principles in utterly rejecting and opposing the efforts 
of the secular and regular clergy to arrive at a modus 
Vivendi in England, which might leave the question 
of Catholic supremacy in the country to be decided 
in the future. 

1 A very interesting treatise, written at this period (January 1 598) 
from Rome by Henry Tichborne, S.J., sets forth the Jesuit view. Their 
hopes of success in England, he says, are founded on the high credit in 
which Father Persons is held in Eome, and Cresswell and Holt in 
Madrid and Brussels. He rejoices in the persecutions in England as 
t)ie priiicipal source of Jesuit strength. The only thing to be feared, 
he says, is the granting of liberty of conscience in England, "which is 
supposed to proceed from some deeper brain than our ordinary wits are 
wont to yield." The writer then warns his fellows against " such as 
gape after that liberty," which, he says, will be so " dangerous that what 
rigour of law could not compass in so many years, liberty and levity 
will effectuate in twenty days" (State Papers, Domestic, Eliz. cclxii. 
Printed in full in Law's "Jesuits and Seculars"). 



2 88 TREASON AND PLOT 

Whilst, therefore, the mass of Catholics at home 
and abroad were striving to prove their loyalty to 
the crown, the Spanish Jesuit faction, with undi- 
minished boldness and ability, were working still to 
obtain possession of England by means of foreign 
forces. 

The Adelantado's fleet had straggled back to Spain, 
disheartened and plague-beset, in November 1597. 
The King was slowly dying, in agonies almost beyond 
human endurance ; his exchequer was drained ; his 
people literally starving ; land untilled ; industries 
ruined ; corruption and demoralisation supreme in 
the administration, and the whole country was a 
prey to spiritual disillusionment and pagan reaction, 
under the guise of writhing devotion. But, withal, 
the indomitable spirit of Philip himself burned 
brightly in his decaying body, and the Adelantado 
was summoned quickly, not as the news-letters and 
spies reported, to be hanged, but to consult for the 
despatch of a new expedition in the following 
spring. A Scottish sea-captain, coming from Lisbon 
in January 1598, reported to the English officers 
that the fleet making ready at Ferrol was "to be 
double the strength of that which came last year," ^ 
and that the purpose was to invade England in 
April or May, whilst in Lisbon itself twelve ships 
were being fitted out, and twenty-two bands of 
soldiers training. 

There is amongst Lopez de Soto's papers,^ a 
discourse or report for the King's guidance, written 
soon after the Adelantado's return from his interview 

^ State Papers, Domestic, of tlie date. Eeport of Wilson. 
2 British Museum, Add. MSS. 28,420, 122. 



PLANS FOR A FOURTH ARMADA 289 

with Philip in the winter of 1597, with recom- 
mendations as to the measures to be taken for the 
success of the new Armada of invasion. The paper 
could never have been written by Lopez de Soto 
himself, as it ignores all the practical difficulties ; 
and its obvious and sanctimonious generalities 
almost prove it to have been one of those inept 
^^ consultas" which the Councils usually drew up 
after the King decided upon any course in principle. 
But it is extremely instructive, nevertheless, as 
showing how entirely affairs were managed from 
hand to mouth, and how the King's secretive 
monopoly of initiative paralysed all action. "As 
his Majesty has decided to take the course de- 
manded by the good of Christendom," says the 
document, " we will proceed to consider and report 
upon the best means by which the success of the 
undertaking may be assured. The first is to re- 
commend it to God, and to endeavour to amend 
our sins ; but since his Majesty has already given 
a general order to this effect, and has appointed a 
commander who usually insists upon this point, 
it will be only needful to take care that the order 
is obeyed and to promulgate it again. It must be 
borne in mind that the enemy is very vigilant and 
alert, and that he is well exercised. This, together 
with the need for fitting out our expedition, since 
we cannot divert him by going out and meeting 
him, necessitates that, both in Spain and elsewhere, 
we should be ready at all points, so that every place 
should be able to defend itself without calling upon 
others." This bland beginning leads up to a re- 
commendation equally silly, considering the appalling 

T 



290 TREASON AND PLOT 

state of exhaustion into which the country had sunk. 
" All these necessities everywhere," it is sagely 
pointed out, will call for a vast expenditure, for 
which the money must be collected " with extra- 
ordinary rapidity, and by every licit means that can 
be devised. In order to examine what means are 
licit, a committee of theologians must be summoned, 
to whom so great a matter may be confided, and 
their opinion should be adopted." The order 
already given to Count Santa Gadea to land and 
drill the army is approved of, so that it may be 
all ready for the spring ; and in the meanwhile he 
must be supplied with money and victuals from 
Galicia. " If progress is made in Ireland this 
winter, as is hoped, this army may be increased in 
the beginning of the summer by a sufficient number 
of Irish troops, and we may then cross over from 
there (Ireland) to Wales ; and if at the same time 
galleys be sent to Calais, whence a powerful army — 
collected ostensibly for other purposes by the Arch- 
duke — can be carried across, it will be a godsend 
to the main enterprise. At the same time the 
negotiations of Father Persons and other Catholics 
will help." The consulta then dictates, at great 
length, the diplomatic steps to be taken to dissuade 
the King of Scots,^ the Dutch, the Danes, the 

^ Excuses are proposed to be adopted for sending embassies from tlie 
Archduke to tbe various Protestant potentates on this matter, the pre- 
text in the case of the King of Scots being " to inform him of that liar 
that came here." This refers no doubt to the mission of Pury Ogilvie, 
The proposal to send an envoy to Scotland appears to have been 
adopted. The notorious George Ker, accompanied by a secretary of 
the Archduke named Don Diego de Spinoza, went from Flanders to 
Scotland via Calais in February, and were shortly afterwards followed 
by another emissary named Cunninghame. Full information of these 



ENGLISH PREPARATIONS 291 

Italians, and the Shereef of Barbary from aiding the 
English ; but it ends, as it begins, with the opinion 
that " the principal thing is the money which can be 
collected legally, since what is illegal is prohibited ; 
and this is a time when no licit means must be spared." 
Let us contrast this mealy-mouthed impracticability 
with the methods adopted in England to meet the 
threatened new attack. The recommendation to 
send the Spanish galleys to Calais was adopted 
rapidly, doubtless in order to make use of the port 
in landing large reinforcements for the Archduke, 
before the signature of the treaty with France 
deprived the Spaniards of it. In any case, England 
was cast into a renewed ferment by the news 
received in February 1598 that a Spanish fleet had 
arrived unmolested in the narrow seas. From a 
Spanish sailor captured and carried into Dover 
it was learnt that 38 flyboats full of soldiers, 5000 
of them, had sailed under the veteran Admiral 
Bertondona from Corunna to Calais. The sailor 
said that they had left 18 large well-appointed ships 
at Corunna, and that 5000 Italian troops were in 
the neighbourhood ready for embarkation, but 
many of them were dying of dysentery. After the 
troops had been landed at Calais, the 38 flyboats, 
he said, were to return to Lisbon to be re-victualled, 
and then to sail under Diego Brochero.^ 

embassies were sent by Colville in Boulogne to Essex, and the intelli- 
gence aroused great uneasiness in England, the belief being that James 
was now in close negotiation with Spain. As we have seen above, the 
object of the Spaniards was simply to prevent James from aiding the 
English against them. (See Colville's letters in Hatfield Papers, vol. 
viii.) 

1 Examination of Pedro Martinez. State Papers, Domestic, Feb- 
ruary 16, 1598. 



292 TREASON AND PLOT 

All this was alarming enough, for it was known 
that the peace was as good as signed between 
France and Spain, and Secretary Cecil himself was 
crossing the Channel on his mission to Henry IV. 
Essex seems to have been the first to receive the 
news, and he wrote post-haste to Cecil, telling him 
that the Spaniards were in Calais roads. The Earl 
of Cumberland had been ordered to go thither 
immediately with such ships as he could collect, 
and to follow the Spaniards wherever they went. 
The Lord Admiral, with his kinsman Lord Thomas 
Howard, had rushed down to Gravesend and Queen- 
borough to fit out fresh vessels with all speed. 
Lord Cobham had ridden as hard as horses could 
gallop to Dover Castle ; the Lord Chamberlain had 
gone to the Isle of Wight with equal speed, and 
Sir Walter Ralegh was commissioned to furnish 
provisions all along the coast ; whilst Essex him- 
self was to stand ready to repel attack at any 
point. " Above all, the Queen commands that you 
(Cecil) are not to put to sea." This, be it recollected, 
was only one day after the news came that the 
Spanish flyboats were in English waters. A letter 
bringing at the same time the intelligence to his 
father and the Lord Admiral had also come from 
Cecil himself,^ who had safely crossed to Dieppe. 
Burghley was dying, and was only useful now in 
council ; but Howard wrote to him from Graves- 
end (February 17) deploring that so few English 
ships had remained in the Straits of Dover, most 

1 The letter bore the superscription, "For life, for life, for very- 
life," and had a gallows drawn upon it as a hint to the postman of the 
consequences of delay. 



ENGLISH ACTIVITY 293 

of them having gone west to escort Cecil to Dieppe 
— "and yet," he says, "her Majesty commanded 
me to lessen them. In my opinion these ships 
(the Spaniards) will watch a turn to do something 
on our coast ; and if they hear our ships are gone 
to Dieppe, I think them beasts if they do not burn 
or spoil Dover or Sandwich. What 4000 men 
may do on a sudden I leave to your Lordship's 
judgment. I hope it shall cost them dear if they 
attempt it. There is nothing here, at Gravesend, to 
impeach anything but two silly forts." ^ 

There was no dismay here ; no boggling about 
the theologian's views of what was licit in a 
moment of national emergency : only a determina- 
tion to resist invasion to the death, unprepared 
though England was,^ Warned by the threat at 
Falmouth in the previous year, Sir Nicholas Parker 
had been sent to fortify the place. Sir Francis 
Godolphin had mustered his Cornish levies and 
was standing ready ; whilst, as we have seen, not 
an hour was lost, when the danger in the narrow 
sea was known, in buckling on the national armour 
to resist. But there need have been no fear. The 
wind blew dead off Calais, and eighteen of the fly- 

1 Lord Admiral to Lord Burgliley, February 17, 1598. State Papers, 
Domestic. 

2 Even Cecil and Essex pulled together in this hour of danger. The 
Earl had promised the Secretary that he would not take advantage of 
his absence to injure him or to bring about any change, and he kept 
his word. We have seen that he wrote to Cecil the hour that he heard 
the news, and Cecil wrote to him, on the day of his arrival at Dieppe : 
" As the Queen's affairs must have a good portion of our minds, 1 do 
hope, now that God has disposed us to love and kindness, we shall 
overcome all petty doubts about what the world may judge of our 
correspondency " (State Papers, Domestic, Cecil to Essex, February 19, 
1598). 



294 TREASON AND PLOT 

boats, huddled under the guns of the fortress to 
escape the Earl of Cumberland's ships, were lost. 
The rest of them, when they got into the harbour, 
and the main English squadron came up from 
Dieppe, dared not venture out again for fear of 
the English, and their absence crippled the arma- 
ment fitting out in Spain. 

In April an English Catholic of the Jesuit faction 
wrote from Lisbon already casting doubt upon the 
possibility of any attempt being made upon England 
that year. " Alas ! " he says, " the King is not well 
provided with means for recovering our country 
and establishing the Catholic religion there." The 
theologians had probably not yet settled what were 
the "licit" ways of raising the wind. The celerity 
of the English methods had already, in the six 
weeks that had elapsed since the flyboats came to 
Calais, enabled the Earl of Cumberland to assume 
the ofifensive. " The archpirate Cumberland is re- 
ported to be on the coast," writes the Catholic in 
Lisbon, " so that the five great carricks for the 
East Indies dare not go forth. Pray entertain all 
good Catholics in devotion, and what the King 
cannot do this year, he will do next. Want of 
skill in the mariners' last voyage and the sending 
of those ships to Calais has weakened his naval 
force, and sickness his land forces. However, 
the heretics are defending their coasts at home, so 
there is no fear of their making any attempt here." 

In fact, famine and pestilence, in combination 
with the administrative incompetence, of which we 
have seen instances in the documents quoted, had 
already made another expedition to England im- 



SPAIN'S UTTER EXHAUSTION 295 

possible in 1598. So abjectly terrified were the 
Spaniards, moreover, at the mere presence of Cum- 
berland's ships in their waters, that the five great 
Indiamen outward bound were brought again to 
the quay at Lisbon and discharged, their cargoes 
coming as a very boon from heaven to the famished 
city. The annual fleet for America, too, dared not 
sail from Seville for fear of capture ; ^ and thus the 
whole great commerce of Spain for the year was 
stopped, to the ruin of merchants and the despair 
of Philip's treasurers, because a few English ships 
were on the coast,^ although a much stronger force, 
45 ships, we are told, were now ready for sea in 
Corunna harbour, and the Adelantado's fleet of 20 
great ships and 140 small craft still lay in Ferrol 
unable to get crews. ^ 

A foe thus dispirited and so exhausted in moral 
and material resource was ludicrously incapable of 
forcing Catholic supremacy upon England at the 
sword's point. Spain, like a bankrupt ex-millionaire 
or a palsied prize-fighter, continued to inspire respect 
or fear by the tradition of her former potency, 
which itself had largely depended in her best days 
upon the artificial spiritual exaltation bred of re- 
ligious intolerance. But the strengthening efiects of 
the stimulant were mostly gone now, except amongst 

^ Van Harnack to Cecil from Lisbon, May i, 1598. State Papers, 
Domestic. 

'•^ A shipmaster from Lisbon reports to Cecil in June (State Papers, 
Domestic), that the Adelantado with 20 great ships and 140 others 
was at Ferrol, but had no mariners. Two forts had been built at the 
mouth of the harbour for fear of the English attacking the ships as 
they lay at anchor. There were 1 5,ocx) soldiers, but sickness was very 
prevalent, and every one was greatly afraid of the English fleet. 

3 Keport of Savage, February 18, 1598. State Papers, Domestic. 



296 TREASON AND PLOT 

the very ignorant. Gross superstition and a slavish 
obedience to religious forms barely veiled the blackest 
paganism. There was no longer a confident belief 
that the Spaniards were the chosen militia of the 
Lord, for they themselves saw that the contemned 
" heretic " worked his will with them on the sea 
Avhenever he met them. Priests and friars might 
urge as before upon Spaniards the sacred duty of 
making other nations as perfect in the eye of Heaven 
as they were themselves. It still flattered their 
native pride and the vanity of a people sunk in 
poverty, sloth, and ignorance to be told that their 
sovereign was the richest and most powerful on 
earth, and that they themselves were a people in- 
finitely superior to all others. But they individually 
were content to sit down and enjoy the fact. They, 
poor wretches, like other peoples of their time, were 
pressed for service when the King deigned to need 
their carcasses, but they were no longer upheld, as 
they had been in 1588, with the assurance of inevit- 
able heaven-sent victory over the enemies of the 
Lord. They went forth now trembling with fear at 
the "devilish folk," and with dumb misgivings that, 
sacred banners and blessed beads notwithstanding, 
the powers of darkness were stronger than the 
powers of light. Thus one by one the weapons by 
which Philip had dreamed of forcing religious uni- 
formity upon the world were bending in the hands 
of their wielders. The spiritual exaltation of his 
people had faded in the face of repeated failure, the 
national ambitions behind his devout professions had 
been found out, and the English Catholics, who had 
so long served him for a stalking-horse, were yearn- 



HOPES OF PEACE 297 

ing for concord under their national flag on almost 
any conditions which would leave them unmolested 
for their faith. 

This was the feeling that prompted most moderate 
men in England during the spring of 1598 to hope 
and believe that means would be found to bring 
about peace between England and Spain, even if it 
meant the abandonment by Elizabeth of the Dutch. 
" We are all of opinion that the peace goes for- 
ward," wrote John Chamberlain on the 20th May. . . . 
Barnevelt, the agent and advocate of the States, is 
here, and hath had audience these two days to- 
gether, but I fear we are deafe on that side and 
no musike will please us unles it be to the tune of 
peace." ^ Essex, as usual, struggled against a paci- 
cation which would draw England into any com- 
promise with Spain and the Catholics, and Lord 
Burghley, almost with his dying breath, solemnly 
rebuked the young Earl for his attitude ;" but the 
signature of the peace of Vervins and the vigorous 
renewed action of the Archduke against the States 
finally made it necessary for Elizabeth to continue 
her active support of the latter, whilst still making 
the approaches towards Spain invariably resorted to 
by the Cecil party when France was at peace.^ 

1 Letters of John Cliamberlain. Camden Society and State Papers, 
Domestic. 

2 Essex wrote an elaborate and eloquent " Apology " for his action at 
this time. It was reprinted in 1603, and is usually included in Francis 
Bacon's works, although it is not by him. 

3 In July the States sent three representatives to beg the Queen to 
continue the war vigorously in their aid, " as in her Council there are 
not lacking those who recommend this course, chiefly the Earl of Essex, 
but the Lord Treasurer is opposed, and more important still the Queen 
herself ia inclined to peace " (Ihe Venetian Ambassador in France to 
the Doge). 



298 TREASON AND PLOT 

The principal argument used by the advocates of 
a settlement, besides the obvious advantages it would 
bring to commerce, and the need for national tran- 
quillity, was the threatening state of affairs in Ire- 
land.^ We left Tyrone at the close of the year 1597 
enjoying a two-months' sulky truce instead of the 
two years' cessation for which he had asked. The 
Irish Government had continued to press the Queen 
for strong reinforcements, for it was evident now 
that Tyrone meant to head a great rising of the 
north and west. The Council in Dublin, whose 
policy towards Tyrone made peace impossible, to 
the despair of soldiers like Norreys and Fenton, 
were inept and doubly unable to conduct the war 
they provoked, first, by reason of their own slow 
bureaucratic stupidity, and secondly, because the 
home Government sent the resources they prayed 
for in grudging driblets, which always made large 
operations impossible. In the meanwhile Leinster 
was being ravaged by O'Connors, O'Mores, Molloys, 
and O'Byrnes with the assistance of numbers of 

^ John Chamberlain, writes (May 20) : " Another motive to the peace 
is the troubles of Ireland, which are like to put the Quene to exceding 
charge, and, withal, there appears to be a black clowde in Scotland 
that threatens a storm." " Matters in Ireland grow daily worse and 
worse, so that unles they have round and speedy succour, all is like to 
go to wracke. The Council have consulted about it these three or fower 
days, but I hear of no resolution, but only that 4000 men shal be sent at 
leisure." On the 31st May the same indefatigable gossip writes to his 
friend : " In the meane time the state of Ireland^stands on ill terms, for 
we are so wholly possessed with this imaginary peace that we cannot 
attend it. Not past eight days since it was decreed that Sir Richard 
Bingham, Sir Samuel Bagnol, and Sir Henry Docwra should be sent 
thither with each a regiment of 2000 men, but that course is altered, and 
now they talk that Sir Walter Ralegh and Sir George Carew should 
undertake it; but how long that will hold is uncertain " (Chamberlain's 
Letters). 



THE IRISH REBELLION 299 

Ulstermen from Tyrone's country, whilst the English- 
Irish garrisons ^ in Newry, Dundalk, and Cavan, iso- 
lated and starving, were in despair. Ormonde during 
the truce had managed to re-victual the important 
fort on the Blackwater and had done his best to 
pacify Leinster, but when he met Tyrone in con- 
ference at Dundalk (March 14, 1598), he found that 
the " arch-rebel " had been even more than busy. 

Around Tyrone now were grouped all the hoarded 
discontents of Ireland, looking to him for redress. 
For four days the Queen's commissioners met Tyrone 
on the "parley hill," by Dundalk, and told him that 
the sovereign, " having seen his submission, had 
condescended to pardon him on certain conditions." 
This was very well as far as it went, but Tyrone 
insisted upon terms being granted to his confede- 
rates. Many of these were still in arms ; O'Donnell 
himself was skulking in his mountains of Donegal ; 
but the claim gave to Tyrone what he wanted most, 
namely, a further delay in which he might con- 
centrate and arm his bands for the struggle. 
Ormonde strove to please him, giving way on most 
points, and condoning for his sake even the Lein- 
ster ravages of the O'Connors and O'Mores ; for, 
truth to tell, the Anglo-Irish were not strong enough 
now to fight the rebel, and the latter knew it well.^ 

1 Not above a fiftli of the soldiers on the Queen's side in Ireland at 
the time were English, and suspicions of their steadfastness were con- 
stantly expressed by the English governors. 

2 Brian Roe O'More, writing shortly after this to Tyrone, asking him 
to procure the release of Morris Oge O'Connor, who had been arrested 
by Ormonde, said of the English, " By God's grace, there is no stand in 
the churls, if your honour would set upon them now ; for all Ireland 
would have been at your command by this, if it had not been for your 
parleys and truces " (Irish State Papers), 



300 TREASON AND PLOT 

Still it suited his present purpose to defer open 
warfare; and when, a month later (April 14), he 
again met the Queen's men in parley, this time with 
O'Donnell by his side, another six weeks' truce was 
concluded. 

But there was no possibility of deception any 
longer as to his high aims. "A traitor will always 
be a traitor " (wrote one of the commissioners), " do 
what a man may. Tyrone's unhappy successes in 
some bickerings against us, the knowledge of his 
own strength, expectation of foreign help, and the 
confidence he hath in the multitude of his par- 
takers . . . hath puffed him up with such pride 
and haughtiness of mind as cannot be reformed but 
by chastisement and correction. " -^ And the soldier 
Teuton wrote even more emphatically : " Now the 
traitor being discovered to the bottom, and his 
conspiracies, practised in etiect with all the Irish in 
the realm, made apparent, her Majesty seeth now 
what to trust unto ; not to depend more upon 
treaties and parleys, but to turn her mercy into 
revenge, and proceed really to his prosecution." 
During the first parley the Bishop of Meath, re- 
proaching Tyrone with his evident wish to delay 
matters, said: "It is likely you look for the Span- 
iards, and it is like enough they will deceive you, 
as they have done ; and if they keep touch with 
you, you and they shall find her Majesty cares little." 
Then Tyrone drew his sword, and swore on the 
cross of its hilt, " I look neither for Spaniards nor 
Scots to help me, but I would not have it be said 
that I should be counted a perjured wretch to those 

1 The Bishop of Meath, April 18, 1598 (Irish State Papers). 



TYRONE AND THE SPANIARDS 301 

that I am sworn unto, and to leave them in the 
danger." ^ 

It was possibly true that Tyrone at this juncture 
had no desire or expectation of receiving in Ireland 
Spanish forces powerful enough to make him a 
vassal of Philip, but he must have been fully alive 
to the advantage which would accrue to his cause 
if he could identify it with those of Catholicism and 
Irish patriotism. As a pure fact, both this rising 
and those of the Desmonds thirty years before, were 
mainly prompted by a desire of the greater chieftains 
to return to a state of things which formerly had 
given them the position of petty princes, holding 
the smaller chiefs and the people in vassalage, from 
which the English rule had to a great extent eman- 
cipated them. But this, as an avowed object of a 
rebellion, would have been unwise, and patriotism 
and religion were necessary fuel to set the revolu- 
tion in motion. Tyrone must have known that the 
domination of Spain over Ireland would have been 
infinitely more grinding than that of England ; but 
to link the cause of Ireland with that of Catholic 
supremacy, and thus to gain the sympathetic support 
of England's most powerful enemy, was a diplomatic 
move which was no doubt considered of the highest 
importance to his success. We have seen that Philip's 
Council, in the winter of 1597, had counted upon 
Tyrone's being sufficiently successful against the Eng- 
lish in the spring to be able to ship an Irish force upon 
the Spanish fleet intended to invade England. That 
fleet, as has been related, had already (in April or May 
1598) been reduced to impotent hopelessness by mis- 

1 The Bishop of Meath, April i8, 1598 (Irish State Papers). 



302 TREASON AND PLOT 

management, pestilence, poverty, and fear of the 
English, and doubtless Tyrone was kept well in- 
formed of the progress of events. Thomas Lalley, 
who, it will be recollected, had been sent to Spain 
by the Connanght chiefs in the previous year, had 
remained at Philip's court, and continued to send 
advices, and the Bishop of Killaloe was still cease- 
lessly urging the Irish cause in Lisbon.^ 

But what caused much more anxiety than this to 
the Anglo-Irish Government at the time was the 
presence in Spain of Tyrone's secretary, Brimingham. 
The special cause for anxiety in this case was the fact 
that James Stuart, having been informed by Essex of 
the secret plans of the moderate Catholic party, pro- 
bably with the connivance of Cecil, to come to an 
understanding with the Archduke, in which the suc- 
cession of Arabella Stuart should form a part, had 
begun to show increasingly the " insolence " of which 
old Lord Bui-ghley spoke in his discussion as to the 
advantages of peace. Tyrone was glad to welcome 
any aid, and in September 1597 sent Brimingham 
to Scotland to seek James's co-operation, in union 
with that of Spain and the Catholics, who in return 
would assure him the succession to the English 
throne. James was delighted, and sent Brimingham 
to Spain with a Scottish companion." If Tyrone 

^ Yan Harnack reported to Cecil from Lisbon (April 29) that the 
Griffin flvboat was carrying to Ireland a siispicious Jesuit by order 
of the Irish bishop (State Papers, Domestic). 

^ The Scotsman Fleming was an agent of Tyrone, sent to purchase 
powder and munitions. Both he and Brimingham had a narrow escape 
from capture by the English and Huguenots in Rochelle ; but Fleming 
managed to run some cargoes of ammunition from Bordeaux to Loch 
Foyle, whilst Brimingham went on his mission to Madrid, where the 
King's mortal illness, and the complete disorganisation that reigned 



JAMES FAVOURS l^YRONE 303 

had only understood it, this was an infallible means 
for effectually stopping Philip from sending him 
any valid aid. But both he and James himself 
failed to see this, and the latter especially gave 
himself great airs on what doubtless appeared to 
him a certain way of gaining Catholic support for 
his claims. He went so far as to make a statement 
of his rights and hopes in the Scottish Parliament 
in the last days of 1597 which stirred Elizabeth to 
positive fury. She sent Sir William Bowes to him 
with a letter, which remains still an almost un- 
rivalled specimen of her powers of vituperation. 
"Look you not, therefore, that without large 
amends," she said, " I may or will slupper up such 
indignities." ^ But even to Bowes himself James 
could hardly attempt to disguise his elation that 
Tyrone and he were in alliance,^ and that Spain 
would certainly be on their side, though to Elizabeth 
herself he wrote a whimpering apology and semi- 

(added to the fact that James Stuart was now concerned in the business) 
prevented his success so far as material aid was concerned (Irish State 
Papers). 

^ Letters of Elizabeth and James (Camden Society). 

2 Petit, the spy in Antwerp, wrote to Phellips, June 4, 1598 : "If I 
were not acquainted with Scottish brags, I might believe that England 
was already more than half theirs. The King of Denmark's brother is 
going to do wonders. The Duke of Mayenne is to be general in 
England," &c. (State Papers, Domestic). In a letter written by 
Nicholson to Cecil in August (John Colville's Letters) he details a 
conversation he had had with Secretary Elphinstone relative to the 
complaint made by the English Government to James on the presence 
in Scotland of agents of the Irish rebels " The King said he sought no 
purgation in that matter. There were none (Irish envoys) here ; and 
if there were, or MacSorley, or yet Tyrone, or yet O'Donnell, why 
might not they go as well in Edinburgh streets as Bothwell and John 
Colville in London?" The next day Nicholson saw James himself, 
who told him he knew of no Irish agents there, but still harped upon 
the welcome accorded by Elizabeth to his own fugitive subjects. 



304 TREASON AND PLOT 

denial. So whilst Brimingham wrote " comfortable" 
letters from Spain to his master, and James Stuart 
was promising armies and navies to Tyrone in the 
hope of obtaining the subsequent aid of Ireland and 
Spain to his pretentions to the English crown, the 
" arch-rebel" waxed in strength and pride. Thirteen 
thousand English infantry would be needed in Ulster 
alone, reported experienced English officers, before 
Tyrone could be put down. The rebel wealth in 
cattle must be raided, for Ulster will never be 
established in dutiful obedience " so well by the 
dent of the sword as if it should also come by the 
cruelty of famine." ^ But the Government in London 
refused to understand the gravity of the position, 
and continued to send reinforcements in drafts 
of hundreds, instead of by thousands. In vain the 
alarmed Council in Dublin wrote that they them- 
selves were in daily danger of massacre, and 
bemoaned weakly to Lord Burghley their " miser- 
able and distressed estate." The Leinster chiefs, 
whose rebellion had been condoned, broke out 
worse than ever ; and as soon as Tyrone's last 
truce expired in June he sent a strong force of 
Ulstermen down to help them, whilst with other 
detachments he surrounded the important fort on 
the Blackwater and isolated the castle of Cavan.^ 

1 Irish State Papers. It Avas estimated by Captain Mostyn that 
400,000 head or more of cattle could be lifted. He says that he him- 
self saw O'Donnell take 30,000 head in one morning a little above 
Eoscommon. Tyrone's secretary also told Mostyn that if the Earl 
levied a subsidy of one shilling on each milch-cow in county Tyrone 
alone, he could raise between ^6000 and £jooo. 

2 Fenton wrote to Cecil, June 11, 1598, detailing the plans for 
succouring Cavan and protecting the Pale, but saying, "But yet 
touching the Blackwater I see not but it must be left to the valour 



BATTLE OF ARMAGH 305 

There were not sufficient English forces in Ireland 
to withstand him effectually anywhere, and the 
most that could be done by Ormonde was to defend 
Leinster and repel the incursions into the Pale. 
All the north and centre outside the walled garrisons 
was in open rebellion against the Queen. Panic- 
stricken messengers rushed daily into Dublin with 
false news of Spanish fleets anchored in Loch Foyle ; 
of great victories gained by Tyrone ; of fresh risings 
in Connaught, and the like ; whilst the miserable 
Council of Regency could only continue to write 
despairing letters to London. In the meanwhile 
Tyrone's dispositions were skilfully made. He 
pushed bodies of men down on the west of the Pale 
to Longford, and on the north to Meath and Dundalk, 
whilst he raised the clans of Lower Leinster, and the 
English Governors soon found themselves in danger 
of being entirely surrounded by land. The English 
reinforcements, when at length they came in July, 
reached only 2000 men,^ not sufficient to defend 
even the province of Leinster, with which Ormonde 
was chiefly concerned ; but the indignant remon- 
strances of the English officers at the orders that the 
fort on the Blackwater should be surrendered to 
Tyrone, forced the Government to divert a portion 
of the English reinforcements to that point. 

and fortune of the garrison there, for there is no means here to put 
an army on foot to rescue it." 

^ These men deserted as soon as they could, and great complaints 
were made that the captains quickly filled up their places with " mere 
Irish," for whom they drew the same pay. As a matter of fact, when 
it came to actual fighting, the Irish, though of doubtful allegiance, 
were worth a great deal more. At the crucial moment of the battle of 
the Blackwater, the newly arrived English levies refused to fight at all^ 
casting away their arms and bolting (Irish State Papers). 

U 



3o6 TREASON AND PLOT 

Tyrone in person had for a month past strained 
every nerve to secure possession of the fort, which 
was held with great gallantry by Captain Thomas 
Williams. Every approach to the place had been 
entrenched and fortified to prevent its relief, and 
the Council hesitated long before they would allow 
it to be attempted. At length a force of 3500 foot 
and 300 horse, under Sir Henry Bagenal, reached 
Armagh (August 13, 1598), and marched the next 
morning to relieve the neighbouring fort. An in- 
credible want of skill in the disposition of the force 
was displayed. The ground was extremely difficult ; 
Tyrone had an army almost double the strength of 
the English, and had posted men in every position 
whence a relieving force could be attacked. Bage- 
nal divided his little army into three divisions 
following each other, each divison composed of two 
regiments, with intervals between the divisions of 
140 paces each. This was the iirst and most fatal 
mistake, as the path taken lay through a country of 
broken hills flanked by bogs and woods, and one 
division was too far distant to help another in case 
of sudden attack. The three divisions had thus 
successively to run the gauntlet of a galling flank 
fire from concealed enemies during the march from 
Armagh to the first of Tyrone's trenches, a distance 
of some two miles. The vanguard, by abandoning 
the path and deploying to the flank, managed to 
carry the long trench at one point, but only after 
considerable loss and confusion, owing to the boggy 
nature of the ground at the point of attack and the 
flank fire from the woods on each side. The second 
-division, encumbered with a field-piece, stuck in the 



BATTLE OF ARMAGH 307 

bog before reaching the trench, and Bagenal sent 
orders to the leading division to retreat. The retreat 
turned into a rout, and many of the men of this 
division were put to the sword by the pursuing 
rebels. Bagenal, endeavouring to stiffen the flying 
vanguard with his central division, waved his helmet, 
but at once received a bullet through the forehead 
which laid him low, and almost immediately after- 
wards two barrels of powder exploded in the second 
division and completed the demoralisation of the 
men. 

In the meanwhile the new English levies, galled 
with the flank fire and dispirited by the confusion, 
threw away their arms and fled helter-skelter, whilst 
several hundreds of the " mere Irish " deserted to 
the enemy. It was then decided to withdraw the 
survivors of the three divisions to Armagh, and, 
leaving some of their cannon hopelessly bogged, the 
rear division led the retreat. But the pursuit be- 
came so hot and deadly upon the remnants of the 
former vanguard and centre, that the rear and now 
leading division turned about and charged the enemy. 
A second powder explosion had happened in their 
ranks just before, and the men were unsteady, so 
that their charge upon the Irish failed. The remains 
of the other regiments attempted to come to their 
assistance, but the long distance between the 
divisions prevented close or effective co-operation; 
the Irish were numerous enough to isolate them, 
and the rearguard was practically destroyed. The 
rest of the force fought their way back, foot by foot, 
almost to the walls of Armagh, where, before they 
could proceed further, they found themselves sur- 



3o8 TREASON AND PLOT 

rounded. A body of English horse cut their way- 
through to the Pale to carry news of the disaster. 
Between 1500 and 2000 men, with nearly all the 
officers and standards, were lost ; and to the panic- 
stricken Council in Dublin, to dying Philip at the 
Escorial, and to all Christendom flew the pregnant 
news that the English rule over Ireland was totter- 
ing, for the only considerable body of English armed 
men in the kingdom had been swept clean away. 

The Irish Council lost its head entirely and de- 
scended to the depth of sending a whining prayer 
to the "arch-rebel" to be merciful, and "let them 
(the English survivors) depart without doing them 
any further hurt. . . . And besides, your ancient 
adversary the Marshal (Bagenal) being now taken 
away, we hope you will cease all further revenge 
against the rest." ^ To this Tyrone agreed, and 
all the Queen's forces marched from the borders 
of Ulster, leaving rebellion triumphant and O'Neil 
a sovereign prince. 

Almost the last letter that was dictated by Philip 
in his dying torments was one to Tyrone and 
O'Donnell, giving thanks to Heaven and to them 
for the steadfastness and valour which had enabled 

^ The Council, when they grew cooler, appear to have been ashamed 
of this letter, and said that it had never been delivered. This is still 
doubtful ; but the Queen was in a towering rage when she learned 
of its being written. " We may not pass over this foul error to our 
dishonour," she wrote to the Council, " when you framed such a letter 
to the traitor after the defeat, as was never read the like either in form 
or substance for baseness. ... If you shall peruse it again, when you 
are yourselves, you will be ashamed of your own absurdities, and 
grieved that any fear or rashness should ever make you authors of an 
action so much to your sovereign's dishonour and to the increase of the 
traitor's insolence" (Irish State Papers, August 16 and September 12, 
1598). 



TRIUMPH OF TYRONE 309 

them to gain this signal victory for the Catholic 
<}ause/ Failure, utter and complete, had for forty 
years attended the King's struggle to make England 
• Catholic, that she might become a fit instrument 
for Spanish aims. He alone had never lost faith 
in ultimate victory, as one catastrophe had followed 
another with heartbreaking iteration of disaster ; 
and now, in the awful sufferings of his last hours, 
he must have thought that Heaven was relenting 
towards him, for the Catholic cause in the domi- 
nions of Elizabeth for once was triumphant. 

^ MS. Simancas (Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.). 



CHAPTER X 

Letters of John Colville — James intrigues with, the Catholic Powers — 
The " Wisbech Stirs " — Recriminations against the Jesuit faction — 
The murder plot of Squire and Rolls — Father Walpole's con- 
nection with it — The desire of the Archduke for peace with 
England — Successes of the Irish rebels — Discontent of Essex — 
His government in Ireland — The march through Munster — Hia 
parley with Tyrone — His disobedience and return to England — 
His arrest. 

The jangling policies and factions in Elizabeth's 
court, and the threatening state of affairs in Ireland 
in the summer and autumn of 1598, brought ad- 
ditional hopes and energy to the two schools of 
Catholics, who, in their different ways, were striving 
to undo the work of the Reformation on the death 
of the Queen. John Colville ^ was writing almost 
weekly alarming letters from his retreat in France 
to Essex, telling of the coming and going of Papist 
envoys to James. Robert Bruce, the ex-Spanish 
agent, was in Scotland, with George Ker, Father 
Gordon the Jesuit, and a number of French Catho- 
lics of the Guise faction, who, according to the 
reports furnished by Colville, were arranging for 
armed aid to be sent to James to establish him as 
Catholic King of England, There is no doubt that 
James was now, as ever, quite ready to coquet with 

1 Letters of John Colville in Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. Colville, a 
former ambassador of James, was a member of the Puritan party who 
had offended the King and had taken refuge in England, whence he 
had been forced to go to France in order to avoid giving offence to 
James. He was an agent of the English Government, 



JAMES STILL INTRIGUING 311 

the Catholic party, and that he was, as we have 
seen, in close sympathetic correspondence with 
Tyrone ; but the movements of the Catholics to- 
wards him at this juncture — with the exception 
of the embassy from the Archduke, of which the 
real object is revealed in the consulta quoted in 
the last chapter — may be confidently traced to the 
French and Italian, or anti-Spanish, influence, which 
saw in his conversion and succession the only safe- 
guard against the Spanish domination of England 
or the perpetuation there of the Protestant supre- 
macy.^ 

This was, of course, not fully understood at the 
time, and Colville, like all the members of the 
extreme Puritan party, saw the evil hand of Spain 
in everything. James himself, moreover, undoubtedly 
preferred to look with most amiability to the ad- 
vances of the faction from which alone he could 
hope for armed support to his claims. He was 
willing enough to receive doles and blessings from 
the Pope, or from any one else who would send 
them to him ; but, after all, he knew that armies 
and fleets, if he needed them, could only come 
from Spain, and to Spain he looked with a yearning 
gaze over the heads of Scottish Italianate priests 
and Guisans. Colville himself to some extent saw 

^ Colville wrote to Essex on the 31st May a long letter relative to 
tte intrigues then being conducted by James's ambassador in Paris, 
the aged Beaton, Arclibisbop of Glasgow, The King of France, he 
said, was sending kind letters to James, with others from the Con- 
stable, the Duke of Mayenne, the Duke of Guise, and many other high 
personages. " The chief practices for the King of Scots will come from 
hence {i.e. France) by means of the Bishop of Glasgow and the House 
of Giiise, the Trench King being disposed to do no more for England 
than shall be for his own weal " (Hatfield Papers, vol, viii,). 



312 TREASON AND PLOT 

the difficulty of reconciling the interests of James 
and Philip in England, and wrote to Essex in 
April 1598 (Hatfield Papers, vol. viii.) : "For the 
opinion holden that friendship is incompatible be- 
twixt him and Spain, shooting both at one mark, 
there be three arguments which shall — if they have 
not done so already — blind him in that point. 
First, the revenge of his mother s death. Second, 
the assurance that they whom he most trusts, both 
at home and abroad, shall give him, that Spain 
means not to punish him. And last, how you [i.e. 
England) shall be invaded, which is intended to 
be by the King of Spain's money, but with few of 
his men, the body of the army to be Scotsmen and 
other nations lifted ... by the House of Guise, 
unto whom he sends a man called Ker every half 
year. And so the army being at his command- 
ment, he need not fear that Spain can punish him. 
To prove that he wishes you to be invaded in this 
sort only, peruse the latter end of the project, 
written in his own hand, which Mr. Geddie did 
present." ^ 

There is no doubt that James would dearly have 
loved to obtain Spanish aid on such easy terms, and 
on every opportunity he endeavoured to do so. But 
we see now that there never was the remotest possi- 
bility of Philip finding either money or men for the 
purpose of establishing James on the throne of 
England. The policy of Spain was fully as selfish 
as that of James, and was conducted by diplomatists 

^ It was also laid down in the instructions of Pury Ogilvie which I 
have quoted. The stipulations with regard to the composition of the 
army of invasion were always treated by Philip and his Ministers with 
ridicule and scorn. 



JAMES STILL INTRIGUING 313 

for whom the King of Scots, with all his cunning, 
was no match. Though intense indignation^ and 
some alarm were caused in England, therefore, by 
this active trafficking between James and the Catho- 
lic parties, the matter was in truth not nearly so 
dangerous as it looked. 

As a counterbalance to it, the Protestant party in 
Scotland, who were deeply concerned at this back- 
sliding on the part of their King, made a curious 
proposal to Elizabeth. Early in the spring (1598) 
two Scottish gentlemen on the Border (Carlton and 
Graeme) suggested to an English official named 
John Udall, that a great Scottish personage (who 
appears to have been the Earl of Argyll) was willing 
and able to " do a great service " in Ireland. This 
*' service " was nothing less than the capture and 
delivery to Elizabeth of Tyrone : the person who was 
to undertake the task at Argyll's bidding being Sir 
John MacLean.^ For some weeks active negotiations 

^ Essex and his party were naturally the most disturbed at James's 
dallying with the Catholics, especially with the Spanish faction, as he, 
James, was the principal instrument upon which they (the English Puri- 
tans or Liberals) counted to defeat the Moderates and Catholics, who 
were intriguing for a Spanish alliance with Arabella Stuart as Queen. 
Essex's secretary, Cuffe, in his declaration on his master's impeach- 
ment, declared that the main object of the Earl's correspondence with 
James, was to " staye him from irreligious courses, in declining from 
his religion, which of late hath been somewhat feared ; and next, that 
he might hinder the designs of the Infanta, whose pretensions to the 
succession hee did utterly mislike" (Cuffe's answers to the Council, 
Hatfield MSS. uncalendared, vol. Ixxxiii.). 

2 Early in August Sir John MacLean and all his kin were surprised 
in the island of Islay, where he was conferring with the son of Angus, 
and murdered. "James MacSorley (James Oge M'Sorley-boy M'Don- 
nell) had directet out of Ireland privelie the nowmber of foure hun- 
dredcht Ireland men, wha wer principall executeris of this con- 
spiracie " (The Laird of Glenorchy to Colville, Bannatyne Club, 
•Colville Letters). 



314 TREASON AND PLOT 

to this end proceeded in Scotland ; but as Argyll, 
when he came to the English court in May, avoided 
the subject, the Queen and Essex distrusted the good 
faith of the proposers, and the negotiation came to 
nothing. 

Whilst the Catholics of the Scottish faction were 
endeavouring to bring their King to an open accept- 
ance of their faith, and James, though smiling upon 
them, was looking rather towards Spain and Tyrone 
for effective help, the uncompromising Jesuit-Span- 
ish party were still ceaseless in their efforts to for- 
ward their own objects. The appointment of the 
Jesuit nominee, Father Blackwell, as Archpriest 
of England,^ and the high-handed action of Father 
Persons in Rome with regard to the wishes and 
demands of the English Catholic clergy, had finally 
driven the great majority of the secular priests and 
Catholic laymen into open denunciation of the 
Jesuits and all their works. In Wisbech the two 
sections of prisoners kept apart, reviling each other 
heartily. The scandal was so great that the Puri- 
tan party naturally turned it to their own advantage, 
and demanded the closer imprisonment of the 
Jesuit sympathisers, whom their very co-religionists 
and fellow-prisoners denounced as accomplices in 
treason. Father Weston and several others of the 
Jesuit party were consequently moved from the 
loose restraints of Wisbech to the strict seclusion of 

^ One of the secular priests thus ■wrote of the appointment: "All 
Catholics must hereafter depend upon Blackwell, and he upon Garnet 
(the Superior of the Jesuits), and Garnet upon Parsons, and Parsons 
upon the Devil, who is the author of all rebellions, treasons, murders, 
disobedience, and all such designments as this wicked Jesuit hath 
hitherto designed against her Majesty, her safety, crown, and life." 



CATHOLIC RECRIMINATIONS 315 

the Tower, whilst the leading priests of the loyal 
faction, especially Dr. i3-:gshaw, opened up friendly 
communications with the Qaeen's Council, with the 
object of defeating the machinations of their enemies.^ 
The natural result of this was a recrudescence of 
the religious agitation and of the accusations and 
counter-accusations against Catholics of complicity 
in real or supposed plots for the murder of the 
Queen, and for other treasonable ends. 

As was the case in 1593, most of these accusations 
were the exaggerations of over-eager spies, or the 
deliberate inventions of scoundrels who sought gain 
or consideration for themselves by the denunciation 
of others ; this latter motive being much stronger 
now than before, owing to the increasing hatred 
between the two sections of Catholics. A large 
number of English prisoners and others were re- 
leased or allowed to escape from Spain on the 
accession of the new King (September 1598), and 
they were mostly eager to gain solid reward as well 
as pardon for themselves by telling sensational 



^ Their great fear apparently was that the letters which they 
expected to come from Rome, as a result of their appeal against the 
appointment of the Archpriest, would command them to obey Weston, 
who would swear them all to be true to the Infanta of Spain, as Per- 
sons had caused the priests in Spain to be sworn; which rather than do, 
said one of them (Bluet), he would starve to death in the castle of Wis- 
bech (Manuscripts in Inner Temple, Hist. MSS. Com., Report ii. 
part 7), Father Watson some months afterwards (early in 1599) 
wrote a refutation of Persons' book on the succession, which was read 
by the Queen, Essex, and Cecil. The latter (according to Watson) 
only took exception to the word "toleration," which was expunged. 
He (Cecil) said that her Majesty would not grant it. Essex, on the 
other hand, apparently anxious to conciliate even the Catholics who 
were opposed to Spain, said " that he could wish with all his heart 
that we might have liberty of conscience " (Law's "Jesuits and Seculars"). 



31 6 TREASON AND PLOT 

stories of what they had seen and heard abroad.^ 
Plymouth was " sold " by Gorges, they said, as well 
as Falmouth by Killigrew. Pickford, the master- 
gunner at Lisbon, had undertaken to kidnap " Sir 
William Beville out of his house." Lists of the 
Englishmen in receipt of pensions in Spain were 
given ad nauseam, with embellishments as to the 
character and designs of the recipients. Most of 
this was the loose talk of uneducated men^ desir- 
ing to add to their own value, but it was given 
an importance out of due proportion in order to 
strengthen the Essex party, who were now deter- 

^ Many of them had served as pilots, gunners, &c., on the Spanish 
ships, and had with apparent eagerness sought the favour of Spaniards. 
For this they had been denounced by others to the English Govern- 
ment, and now sought to make their peace by extravagant professions 
of loyalty, and of their intention from the first to betray their Spanish 
paymasters. They were very anxious too to give particulars of their 
countrymen in Spain, and the names and descriptions of a large 
number of them are given in the Spanish State Papers of the j)eriod, 
and in the Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. 

2 Patrick Strange of Waterford, an Irish shipmaster, who was in 
Spain, reported in October 1598 that the new King Philip III. had 
acceded to the request of Tyrone and O'Donnell to send them men, 
munitions, and money. Six thousand men were to land in Limerick 
and 6000 in the Isle of Wight whilst the English fleet was elsewhere. 
A great navy was to be raised by Spain finally to conquer England, 
and the King had sent " wise men " to the courts of France, Germany, 
Italy, and Rome to seek aid for a general Catholic crusade. Great 
preparations, he said, were already afoot for Ireland, under the com- 
mand of the Adelantado. " Every gentleman expects to be a Don and 
every parson a bishop" (State Papers, Domestic, February 3, 1599). 
Most of this was merely the loose talk of the seaports, and the ignorance 
of the informer is seen by his reference to the aid to be demanded by 
Spain from the other Powers. He also makes the aged Bishop of 
Clonfert Philip's principal adviser in Irish ajBfairs, which he certainly 
was not. Hugh Boy O'Davit first carried the news of Tyrone's victory 
to Spain, and it was he who, during the winter and spring of 1 598-99, 
was urging Philip to send the 6000 men to Limerick (Irish State Papers 
of the date). 



MORE SPANISH "PLOTS" 317 

mined, if possible, finally to defeat Cecil. The 
young Earl himself was alternately flouting at Court 
and sulking at Wanstead House. He coveted the 
late Lord Burghley's offices, he wanted to ruin Cecil, 
he wanted his enormous debts paid, he wanted, in 
fact, to have his own vain, wrong-headed way in 
all things, and this the aged Queen, in spite of her 
affection for him, was determined he should not have 
at any cost. 

At a time when Essex was in deep disgrace, the 
circumstances of which will be related farther on, 
an Englishman, named John Stanley, arrived in 
London from Spain (September 1598). He at first 
addressed himself to Essex, but being unable to 
obtain audience of the Earl, he went to Ealegh, and 
told him an extraordinary story, to the eff"ect that 
when he was in prison in Seville he had met there 
one Francis Sparry, a sailor, whom Ralegh had left 
on the Orinoco, when he had gone on his voyage 
of discovery thither. This Sparry, he said, had dis- 
covered some valuable gold mines unknown to the 
Spaniards, and had given Stanley a map, which 
would enable Ralegh to find them. Stanley, more- 
over, said that he had escaped from Spain, and bore 
two letters from Fitzherbert, the King of Spain's 
English secretary, and Father Richard Walpole,^ the 
Rector of the English College at Seville. He de- 
sired a private audience of the Queen, to whom he 
professed to have some important secret to impart. 
Ralegh, who, no doubt, was constantly being pes- 

^ He was a brother of the Jesuit Father Henry Walpole, whose 
execution is mentioned in a former chapter. See Dr. Jessop's " One 
Generation of a Norfolk House." 



31 8 TREASON AND PLOT 

tered by such approaches, referred the man to Secretary 
Cecil, to whom he gave two letters he had received 
from Walpole and Fitzherbert, and he made a long 
statement about his communications with the King 
of Spain's Ministers and Father Walpole, with re- 
gard to the betrayal of Flushing or Ostend to the 
Spaniards. 

In the meanwhile the spies and some of the Eng- 
lishmen from Spain had some curious stories to tell 
about Stanley. He had come out of Spain with a 
false passport ; there were many circumstances of 
suspicion about him, and he and a companion who 
had come from Spain with him, one Munday, were 
haled to the Tower. There they were examined by 
Sir John Peyton, Sir W. Waad, and Francis Bacon. 
They had agreed together in the Spanish prison, 
they said, to pretend to Father Walpole that they 
would turn Catholics, and do some service to the 
King of Spain, in order to get their liberty. When 
he asked them what service they could do, they 
suggested the betrayal of one of the Flemish for- 
tresses ; and were carried to Madrid to see Idiaquez, 
who sent them on their mission, and gave them 
money for their journey. Father Creswell, they 
said, had blessed and commended them ; the sacra- 
ment had been partaken of by them in company of 
Captain Elliot and Fitzherbert himself, the celebrant 
being an Irish bishop.^ 

A little pressure, however, and perhaps a taste of 
the rack, brought out something more important. 

^ The only two Irisli bishops in Spain at the time were Cornelius 
O'Neil, Bishop of Killaloe, and the Bishop of Clonfert, who lived at 
Burgos. 



MORE SPANISH *' PLOTS" 319 

Stanley told an utterly ridiculous story, which, bears 
indications of its falsity on every line of it. On 
the 5th of August previously he had, he said, been 
carried before the King of Spain himself, and after 
being sworn to secrecy, he was instructed by Philip 
to go to one Munday, who was then in Spain, and 
to receive from him a certain perfume, which he 
was to scatter in the way of the Queen of England, 
who would then be " cut off from life." Stanley 
declared the King's instructions were that he was 
to approach the English Government with some 
feigned proposals for peace, and was to inform the 
King by letter of the reception his approaches met 
with, especially from the Earl of Essex ; and the 
King also enjoined him to aid his colleague, Mun- 
day, to "burn her Majesty's navy." He was, more- 
over, to go to Sir Thomas Arundell and other 
Catholic gentlemen, if he needed aid. "After I had 
been sworn, the King said my gain would not only 
be much money, but that he and his son would be 
my friends. Creswell said to the King that they 
had often been deceived by taking the bare oath on 
the Sacraments, and, therefore, they had sworn me 
by the Lord, and as I hoped to be saved." There was 
much more talk. of the same sort implicating Philip 
IL, Walp le, Fitzherbert, and Creswell ; although 
Stanley, of ourse, professed that he had undertaken 
the murderous task only for the purpose of betray- 
ing it. What was more important than all else was 
that both the prisoners declared that Walpole and 
Creswell had at different tiju -^s angrily denounced 
two men then in England, named Squire and Rolls, 
who they said had received aAarge sum of money in 



320 TREASON AND PLOT 

Spain to kill the Queen and Essex, but had betrayed 
their trust and had done nothing. 

Apart from the gross improbability of Philip at 
any time receiving such men for such a purpose as 
Stanley professed, the King on the day mentioned 
(5/1 5th August 1598) was lying at the Escorial hope- 
lessly ill and quite unable to see any one on business. 
When on the following day the Nuncio came to give 
him the Pope's last blessing, he found that Philip 
had practically finished with the world. Thence- 
forward, until he died (13th September), prayers, 
masses, and an agony of devotion occupied his 
every thought ; and it is quite incredible that he 
would have sent a man on a journey of murder from 
his death-bed at such a time.^ The two letters from 
Fitzherbert and Walpole, Stanley subsequently con- 
fessed were forgeries ; ^ and the whole story, when 
looked at in the light of our present knowledge, 
will not stand a moment's investigation. 

But loose as the denunciations were, they came 
in the nick of time for the party of Essex, to which 
Bacon and Waad belonged ; for Squire and Rolls 
were at once laid by the heels in the Tower, and by 

^ The following extract is from the present writer's " Philip II." : 
" On the 1 6th August the Nuncio brought him the Papal blessing and 
plenary absolution. Philip by this time was incapable of moving, a 
mere mass of vermin and repulsive wounds." From the beginning of 
July until his death he was quite disabled. " The pain of his malady 
was so intense that he could not even endure a cloth to touch the 
parts, and he lay slowly rotting to death for fifty-three dreadful days 
without a change of garment or the proper cleansing of his sores." 
This is the textual account given by an eye-witness of the King's last 
days, and of itself is a sufficient refutation of Stanley's absurd story of 
his long interview with Philip on the 5/1 5th August 1598. 

^ State Papers, Domestic. Examinations of John Stanley, October 
1598. 



ANOTHER "MURDER PLOT" 321 

means of the rack, upon which Squire suffered for 
five hours at a stretch/ a story was torn out, which, 
if true, surpasses all the rest in unavailing villainy, 
and, what was more important still, coupled the 
name of Essex with that of the Queen as the 
intended victims of a Jesuit plot. Squire, it appears, 
had been captured from Drake's fleet, and was im- 
prisoned in Seville. On the rack he told his story 
thus : " Walpole persuaded me to be employed 
against her Majesty's person. He asked me whether 
I could compound poisons ? I said no, but that I 
had skill in perfumes, and had read of a ball the 
smoke whereof would make a man in a trance, and 
some die." Walpole thought this a difficult way, 
and told Squire that he would give him better 
directions later. Squire then went on to say that 
Walpole gave him written instructions to buy cer- 
tain poisons in England, which writings he pro- 
fessed to have destroyed. Opium and other drugs 
were to be macerated and steeped in white mercury 
water, put into an earthen pot and stood in the sun 
for a month. The mass had then to be put into a 
double bladder, one side of which was to be pricked 
full of holes in the upper part and carried in the 
palm of the hand upon a thick glove for the safety 

^ Lingard ("History of England"). When Squire was first arrested, 
and apparently prior to the racking, he wrote down at Waad's instance 
a long statement, " very well set down for so bad a matter," says Waad, 
of the methods used by the Jesuits in Spain to pervert Englishmen 
who fall into their hands, "and to induce them to adventure their 
lives to cut short tyrants." Whilst he detailed the persuasions of 
Walpole for him to commit the crime, he brought forward many 
assertions to prove that he had neither sought nor obtained any oppor- 
tunity when he arrived in England of carrying out the plot. (See 
Hatfield Papers, vol. viii., and State Papers, Domestic, October 1598.) 

X 



322 TREASON AND PLOT 

of the user's hand, " And then I was to turn the 
holes downward, and to press it hard on the 
pommel of her Highness's saddle." Sqmre pro- 
fessed that Walpole had directed him to cause the 
five ingredients to be bought by different persons 
and at different places, for fear of suspicion ; and, 
according to his own account, he procured two 
drachms of opium and five of mercury water at an 
apothecary's shop in Paternoster Row, towards the 
farther end, an ingredient at the Plough in Buck- 
lersbury, and the other two in Newgate Market. " I 
carried them about with me six or seven days, and 
then compounded them in an earthen pot, which I 
set it in a window of my house at Greenwich. I 
applied a part of it to a whelp . . . and never saw 
it afterwards ; and therefore I think it died thereof." 
This was in July 1597, and Squire had then en- 
listed in Essex's fleet, bound for the Azores, giving 
to the Earl, as he says, much information with 
regard to Spanish preparations and plans. On the 
rack he confessed that during the voyage he had 
anointed the arms of Essex's chair with the poison ; 
but, as may be supposed, without the least evil 
effect. On his return he obtained some under-post 
in the Queen's stables, where he managed to smear 
his composition on the pommel of her Majesty's 
saddle ; but again ineffectually. Urged by the 
great persuader, the poor wretch became quite com- 
municative about the share of Walpole and others 
in the proposed crime. The Jesuit, he said, had 
urged upon him how easy and safe the plan was 
of execution, " It was a meritorious act, he said, 
to stab the Earl of Essex; but this against the 



SQUIRE'S CONFESSIONS 323 

Queen is all in all, for there shall need but little 
else than to do that well, which I. charge you to per- 
form above all other things." ^ 

At a somewhat later period, when Squire was in 
the confessional, Walpole had taxed him with an 
intention not to commit the crime. " I protested to 
him that I verily meant to do it. Then he laid 
before me the danger that I was in if I did not 
endeavour to the utmost to perform it, and that I 
must not now fear death. . . . If I did but once 
doubt of the lawfulness or the merit, it was suffi- 
cient to cast me down headlong to hell; and then, 
taking me by the arm, he lifted me up, and took 
me about the neck with his left arm, and made a 
cross upon my head, saying, ' God bless thee, and 
give thee strength, my son ; and be of good courage. 
I will pawn my soul for thine, and thou shalt ever 
have my prayers, both dead and alive, and full 
pardon for all thy sins.' He also used a speech 
over my head, which I could not understand, save 
the first word, Dominus." But the most astounding, 
and, it must be admitted, the most suggestive part 
of the whole confession, was that Squire declared 
that Walpole handed him a letter addressed to Dr. 
Bagshaw at Wisbech Castle — which letter Squire 

1 Dr. Lingard greatly ridicules the conduct of the Crown counsel at 
the trial. It was, however, no worse than usual in such cases, which 
were nearly always prejudiced, and were marked by the grossest brow- 
beating and injustice towards the accused. Coke, on this occasion, 
made a theatrical display of being overcome by his feelings of horror, 
and closed his speech abruptly, as if unable to proceed. His junior 
then dwelt upon the extra danger to which the Queen had been 
exposed by reason of the attempt having been made in hot weather, 
"the veins being then open to receive any malign tainture." Although 
it must have been patent to many, no word was said of the absurdly 
inept and inadequate nature of the attempt itself. 



324 TREASON AND PLOT 

said that he had destroyed with the poison formula ; 
and, in answer to some doubt expressed by Squire 
as to his ability to carry through such a mission, 
Walpole is represented to have said : " Tush ! let Dr. 
Bagshaw but see your intent and be assured of your 
resolution, and all your wants will be supplied," ^ 

When Squire was placed on his trial (November 
9, 1598) public feeling was at fever heat, and the 
Attorney-General Coke and his colleagues made 
the most of the opportunity. Squire passionately 
protested that the untrue avowal of his guilt had 
been torn from him by the torture ; and that, whilst 
he admitted having promised Walpole to attempt 
the crime, he had never intended to effect it, nor 
had he done so. Cecil told him that his confession 
was enough to hang him, and in due course he 
suffered at Tyburn (November 13), protesting with 
his last breath that what he had confessed under 
torture was untrue. 

The consideration that arises in the case, apart 
from the complete absurdity of Stanley's second 
confession about Philip's personal directions to him 
with regard to the poisoned perfume, &c., which may 
be dismissed as untrue, is, that while Squire appears 
to have been sent on a fool's errand by Walpole so 
far as the actual commission of the crime was con- 
cerned, the reference and letter to Dr. Bagshaw, 
which would hardly have been invented by Squire 
on the rack, point to a desire on the part of the 

1 The declarations of Stanley, Mundaj', Squire, and Kolls will be 
found in the State Papers, Domestic, for September, October, and 
November 1598, and abstracted in the Calendar for that period. 
Several other papers connected with the case are calendared in the 
Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. 



SUGGESTED EXPLANATION 325 

Jesuits to strike a fatal blow at the leader of their 
opponents. Dr. Bagshaw, as we have seen, was 
then, and for years afterwards, the champion of the 
"loyal" clergy, and was precisely the least likely 
man to connive at the murder of the Queen by a 
Spanish agent. On the face of it, therefore, it 
certainly looks probable that Walpole did prompt 
Squire to undertake some utterly impossible and 
harmless attempt at murder, simply that he might 
on discovery or confession discredit and ruin Bag- 
shaw.^ When it was found by Walpole that after 
Squire had been in England for a year and a half, 
Weston and the other Wisbech Jesuits were incar- 
cerated in the Tower, whilst Bagshaw and his friends 
were more leniently treated than before, Walpole 
probably came to the conclusion that Squire had 
betrayed him whilst saving Bagshaw. Hence his 
bursts of indignation to Stanley and Munday about 
the falsity of Squire, and hence also Stanley's voyage 
to England for the purpose of divulging Squire's 
plot, so that the rack might drag from the latter 
a mention of Bagshaw's name. If we accept this as 
a possible explanation of an extremely obscure affair, 
it follows that the real object of the Jesuits on this 
occasion was not primarily the murder of the Queen, 
for it must have been obvious to a man of learning 
and culture like Walpole that such a means as that 

^ John Chamberlain, in his gossiping account written to Caiieton, says 
Squire died very penitent. Chamberlain, doubtless voicing the general 
opinion of the time, attributes the coming of Stanley and Munday to 
Walpole's belief that Squire had betrayed him, and to the desire of the 
Jesuit to be revenged upon his false instrument. It will be seen in 
the text that I suggest what seems to me a more adequate reason for 
Walpole's action. 



326 TREASON AND PLOT 

employed by Squire was not likely to be effectual, 
but rather the connecting of the " loyal priests " with 
an attempt at assassination. Stanley's and Mun- 
day's voyage was probably prompted by Walpole 
mainly with this object, as the denunciation and 
arrest of Squire, which was the real purpose, would 
necessarily force from him some declaration con- 
cerning the letter and message from Walpole to 
Bagshaw. That all the accused men talked wildly 
and falsely on the rack is almost certain and natural, 
but the Bagshaw incident is one that would hardly 
have been invented by them, and he was certainly 
not suspected by the examiners ; so that the germ 
of truth in all the confessions seems to be that Wal- 
pole was willing to blacken himself personally with 
the reproach of having incited men to regicide for 
the purpose of securing the infamy of the "loyal" 
Catholics opposed to the Jesuits/ 

^ As in the case of tlie Lopez plot, the Essex influence in the Govern- 
ment caused an account of Squire's so-called attempts on the lives of 
the Queen and Essex to be published broadcast, presenting the heinims- 
ness of the Jesuit incitement to murder in the blackest possible light. 
Father "Walpole wrote a spirited refutation of this account, in which 
he said that Squire was a prisoner of war, and had been incarcerated 
in a Carmelite convent (probably by the Inquisition for heresy), and 
had sent to Walpole to profess a desire for conversion. Walpole de- 
clares that he distrusted him, and refused to ask for his release. He 
denies strenuously that he ever had any conversation with him about 
the Queen's assassination, and declined to give him a letter for any 
Catholic in England. Squire had then escaped, and had gone to Eng- 
land. The confession of Squire, before torture was applied, that 
Walpole had incited him to commit the murder and had provided the 
means, seems, however, damning as against the Jesuit. Unlike others 
in similar case, he had not come with sensational " confessions " for the 
purpose of gaining money and credit. He had been eighteen months 
in England, and had not said a word until Stanley's and Munday's de- 
nunciation of him caused his arrest. (See Waad to Cecil and Essex, 
Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. p. 382.) 



DR. BAGSHAW AND THE JESUITS 327 

The effect of Squire's revelation, that Walpole had 
given him a recommendation to Bagshaw to aid in 
the plot, caused the immediate despatch of orders 
to the local justices to send Bagshaw from Wisbech 
to London for examination. How bitter the feeling 
was between Jesuits and Seculars was seen even in 
this hour of trial. One of the former confined in 
the Tower, named Ralph Ithel (or Udal), told 
Waad, when he knew of the suspicion against 
Bagshaw, that in his room at Wisbech there was 
a hiding-place in a certain part of the wall " where 
he bestows his letters and books that are sedi- 
tious which he disperses abroad. He further tells 
me (Waad) of a priest there called Blewit, who 
is of counsel with Bagshaw in all his doings, in 
whose chamber are like private conveyances." ^ The 
Council, however, seem to have been persuaded of 
the innocence of Bagshaw, although he remained 
in the Gatehouse Prison, Westminster, until Feb- 
ruary 1599. There is ample reason to believe that 
during the period he was there he gave to Cecil the 
fullest information with regard to the case of the 
loyal clergy against the Jesuits, and doubtless laid 
the foundation for the general understanding which 
was afterwards effected between the Government and 
the appellants against the Archpriest's authority.^ 

1 Waad to Essex and Cecil, Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. Ithel was a 
personal enemy of Bluet. Persons in his " Apologie " says that Bluet 
in his conversation at this time with the keeper of Wisbech Castle, had 
asked the latter, when he wrote to Waad, to warn him against Ithel, 
who he said was still in correspondence with Gerard, who had escaped 
from the Tower. Persons, who blackens Bluet's character as a drunkard 
and a brawler, relates that he came to fisticuffs with Ithel and another 
priest at Wisbech. 

2 An interesting letter written to him from Yorkshire by his friend 
Father Mush shortly after this (May 1 599) proves the fear that Bagshaw's 



328 TREASON AND PLOT 

This persistent talk of renewed Jesuit murder 
plots in the autumn of 1598 was rendered the more 
alarming by the reports of the English spies already 
referred to with regard to the aggressive intentions 
of Spain. The Mayor of Boulogne continued to 
write frequently to the Earl of Essex, giving him 
details of the warlike plans of the Cardinal Arch- 
duke Albert.^ John Colville was still equally in- 
dustrious in assuring him that the Bishop of 
Glasgow in Paris was "marvellously busie with 
the Cardinal" to persuade him not to do anything 
against James's claims to the English crown. 
Huntly and Lennox were now in high favour in 
Scotland, and Catholic agents were speeding back- 
wards and forwards daily between Scotland and 
France. "The Cardinal" (reported Colville on the 
4th September) "doth expect some more forces from 
Spain, and it is yet unconcluded whether they 
invade England by entering in Scotland or the Low 

negotiations with the Council aroused. " Jesu ! what vile rumours and 
slanders are cast all over touching you. . . . For God's sake be wary of 
your tongue, that no advantages be taken of you ; and be sure of them 
you impart your mind unto. It is said you are notably circumvented 
by one you trust ; one of our own cloth, who deals very cunningly with 
you. . . . Since your departure Waad hath had all the priests in 
prisons before him, his chiefest questions and threats were about this 
Arch(priest) and accepting of him, A plot, as he saieth of Fa. 
Parsons to make all priests co-operate for bringing in the Infanta for 
to be our Queue. , . . Wonder they make no proclamation against it ; 
but I muse they ar so senseless as not to thinke upon some toUeration, 
with conditions W=^ might free vs from this jelosye " (Petyt MSS. 
xlvii., printed in full in Law's "Jesuits and Seculars"). 

1 See these letters in Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. Even Charles 
Paget, in a letter written (November 30) to Cecil's agent, Barnes, 
about the secret negotiations — probably relating to Arabella Stuart — 
then afoot, said that the King of Spain had prepared a force of 8000 
men to send to Ireland, and had seized all Hollander ships in Spanish 
ports for a similar purpose (State Papers, Domestic). 



A FRESH INVASION SCARE 329 

Countries." An English pilot captured in a Spanish 
ship confessed that *' a kinsman of the Earl of 
Tyrone had been with the King of Spain, from 
whom he had obtained six galleons, certain Flemish 
ships, and pataches, wherein shall be transported 
3000 old soldiers from the garrisons of Calais, 
Blavet, and others, whereof was gathered at the 
Groyne (Corunna) before this examinant's coming 
from thence eight companies, and the ships were 
graven and rigged." ^ A French agent of the Earl 
of Essex assured him that the Archbishop of Glas- 
gow was his enemy, and was in daily confabulation 
with Cardinal Lorraine and other princes of the 
House of Guise. France and Spain, he said, were 
endeavouring to form a league against England ; 
and John Colville capped this intelligence with the 
news that James had sent the Laird of Spynnie and 
other Catholic agents to Paris and Brussels in order 
to associate Scotland with the Catholic Powers, and 
facilitate an invasion of England.^ 

1 Deposition of W. Wylles (Hatfield Papers, vol. viii., September lo, 
1598). 

^ No one in England seems to liave understood that these influences 
were mutually destructive, and that all approaches of James to Spain 
stultified his own objects by alienating his French, Italian, and Papal 
friends, whilst Spain was bound to oppose to the utmost all attempts 
to raise him to the English throne under French auspices, or as the 
result of a compromise which gave to England and Scotland religious 
toleration like that already granted in Germany and France, and thus 
leave Spain entirely isolated in her unbending bigotry. It was here 
that the interests of Flanders under the Archduke separated from those 
of Spain ; and the best hope of reconciliation, as the Cecils saw, was to 
induce the Archduke to revert to the ancient policy of the Burgundians, 
by throwing over Spain altogether, and depending upon England and 
Germany. The difficulty which prevented this was the ultramontism 
of the Infanta, and the uncompromising attitude of Essex and the 
Puritan party in England. 



330 TREASON AND PLOT 

How small a modicum of truth there was in all 
these, and scores of similar advices, we shall see 
presently ; but, true or false, they gave new strength 
to the war party and to Essex, and rendered it in- 
creasingly difficult for Cecil and the moderates to 
bring about a peaceful arrangement with Spain 
which might enable the whole of the Queen's re- 
sources to be cast against the most threatening 
danger of all, namely, that of Tyrone in Ireland. 
The Archduke himself had really no wish to burden 
his and the Infanta's new sovereignty with his 
father-in-law's old quarrels. Flanders, separated now 
from the Spanish crown, had no cause of quarrel 
against England ; and it was distinctly against the 
interests of the latter to avoid driving Flanders, by 
persistent enmity, into friendship with France. We 
have seen that already the Cecils had opened com- 
munications with the Archduke through Charles 
Paget ; but the agents of Essex at home and abroad 
threw every obstacle in the way of an under- 
standing,^ and, thanks to them on the one hand 
and the Jesuits on the other, the efforts at recon- 
ciliation failed. It is interesting to note, however, 
that this arose from no unwillingness of the Car- 
dinal Archduke, as will be seen by the letter he 
wrote to Philip whilst the latter was on his death- 
bed. "We learn from England that the Queen is 
desirous of peace, and that much discussion is taking 
place there on the question . . . but they wish the 
first approaches to be made on our side, in which 
case they would reciprocate. . . . As I am naturally 

1 See the reference to ttis point in the " Advices " of Essex's French 
agent in Paris at this period, in Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. 



OBSTACLES TO PEACE 331 

desirous of the general peace ... I have considered 
whether it would not be advisable, after I have 
taken possession of the States on behalf of the 
Infanta, to send an envoy to the Queen of England 
on some complimentary mission, in the names of 
the Infanta and myself." He then suggests that 
the embassy might give a hint that the transfer of 
the sovereignty of Flanders had, ipso facto, ended 
the war between the dominion and England, and 
this might open the way to a formal peace. "I 
think that this could hardly fail to give satisfaction 
to your Majesty, as it is evident from what your 
Majesty has written to me on several occasions, 
that your Majesty's own inclinations are in favour 
of some peaceful arrangements." ^ This is highly 
significant, because it not only shows that the idea 
of dominating England by force was already well 
nigh abandoned by practical men, even on the 
Spanish side, but also that the Archduke, at all 
events, had no desire to promote the claims of his 
bride, the Infanta, to the English throne. These, 
it is true, were the traditional Spanish aims fos- 
tered by Philip ; but Spain herself was, for all her 
boasting, as prostrate and corrupt now as was the 
body of the King who had ruined her. The Arch- 
duke was an Austro-Flemish prince, whose only 
hope of a peaceful and prosperous sovereignty was 
to free himself from the strangling toils of impossible 
Spanish ambitions, whilst peace with Flanders was 
of vital interest to English trade. But the tales of 
spies and fugitives, who did not understand the real 

* Archduke j^lbert to the King, August 12, 1598, MSS. Simancas, 
Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



332 TREASON AND PLOT 

trend of affairs, the foolish panic about widespread 
Catholic murder plots, the vapouring of bigots and 
swashbucklers, and, above all, the staggering blow 
struck at English power in Ireland by Tyrone's 
victory, gave to Essex and his friends the oppor- 
tunity they sought to prevent reconciliation and 
compromise, which were the objects of more mode- 
rate men. 

Events proved that the fears of the Irish Council 
had not exaggerated the danger arising out of the 
English defeat at Armagh ; and both in England 
and in Ireland it w^as soon understood that the 
island would have to be reconquered by the Queen's 
troops, no matter at what cost. " We cannot but 
fear far more dangerous sequels, even to the utter 
hazard of the kingdom, and that out of hand, if 
God and her Majesty prevent them not," wrote the 
Irish Council immediately after the disaster. " This," 
opined John Chamberlain, "is the greatest loss and 
dishonour the Queen hath had in her time. . . . 
The state of Ireland grows daily di mal in peggio, 
for they begin now to stir in Munster, where the 
White Knight, Sir James of Desmond, and one 
Patrick Condon, a shrewd fellow, are out. . . . 
Some think that Lord Mountjoy shall be sent 
thither as deputie ; others say that the Earl of Essex 
means to take it upon him, and hopes by his coun- 
tenance to quiet that country. Marry ! he wold 
have it under the brode scale of England, that after 
a year he might return at his will." 

In any case it was evident that the pettifogging 
churchmen and lawyers who composed the Council 
in Dublin, and a general like Ormonde, mainly in- 



THE DANGER IN IRELAND 333 

terested in preserving his own domains from damage, 
were unequal to the task of crushing the rapidly 
spreading revolt. Sir Richard Bingham, who in his 
time ruled Connaught with a rod of iron, at little or 
no cost to Elizabeth, was sent back to Ireland as 
Marshal : the English troops originally destined for 
Loch Foyle in Ulster were diverted to Dublin ; for 
the first need was to put into safety from capture the 
seat of English government. If Tyrone had been 
allowed by the composition and resources of his 
army to follow up rapidly his victory at Armagh, the 
capital would have fallen at once, and he would have 
been absolute master of Ireland. But his stores 
were short, O'Donnell's men wanted to go home, 
and Tyrone was anxious about Loch Foyle, 

In October a plan was discovered in the nick of 
time, by which the rebels were to have surprised Dub- 
lin from the inside, and have murdered the English 
in the city. The Irish there and elsewhere, in the 
parts hitherto well affected, were profoundly moved 
by the success of their countrymen in the north ; 
and within two miles of Dublin the rebels reived 
unchecked. Even Kilkenny and Tipperary, where 
Ormonde's own lands lay, were spoiled and ravaged ; 
the wavering Anglo-Irish nobles began to go over 
to the winning side ; Sir Conyers Clifford was with 
infinite diplomacy striving, but with only partial suc- 
cess, to keep Connaught from open revolt ; ^ whilst 

1 O'Rourke, who with his sub-chiefs subsequently threw in his lot 
again with O'Donnell, told Sir Conyers that "if all the magistrates 
of Ireland were of your mind, these wars of Ireland would have ended 
long ago." Men like Norreys, Fenton, and Clifford, who were desirous 
of either conciliating the Irish or else of crushing them absolutely, 
were always hampered by the Council and the English Government, 



334 TREASON AND PLOT 

Mimster blazed out irresistibly under James Fitz- 
Thomas Fitzgerald, the "Popish" Earl of Desmond. 
It was especially against the English settlers in the 
wasted Desmond country in Munster that the rebels 
directed their attacks, and most of these promptly 
fled from their holdings to the comparative safety of 
Cork and Dublin, leaving the revolution triumphant 
in the province outside the walled cities. 

It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that 
all Ireland rallied spontaneously to the Catholic 
rebellion. The inhabitants of the towns, and the 
trading classes generally, understood perfectly well 
that Tyrone had adopted the Catholic cause rather 
as a means than an end. The laws notwithstanding, 
there was but little interference by the English with 
the practice of Catholic worship ; and it was felt 
that trade and industry, at least, would be likely to 
prosper — as they had done — much more under the 
English supremacy than under the sway of native 
territorial princelings. The smaller landowners also, 
whom the English had freed from the tyrannical 
extortions of the great Irish overlords, had grown 
immensely in wealth and importance in consequence, 
and were not at all enamoured of a return to their 
former position of vassal chiefs. Many of this class 
were, it is true, driven, sooner or later, to join in the 
rebellion, by threats and the fear of finally being 
caught on the losing and unpatriotic side, or else by 
the desire of establishing their claims to estates 
which the English had confirmed to others of their 
house ; but in most cases they were eager to make 

who scorned all arrangements whilst refusing to furnish the resources 
for coercion. 



DISCONTENT OF ESSEX 335 

friends again with the Queen's government when 
the tide began to turn.^ 

All this, however, was but imperfectly understood 
at the time by the English, who were ready to lump 
together all Irishmen as barbarians and born traitors, 
who could not be believed on their oath : and the 
problem, as it was presented to the eyes of contem- 
porary English statesmen, was to reconquer by main 
force the island from the Irish, and possibly to be 
brought face to face with a veteran Spanish army, 
now liberated from France by the peace of Vervins. 
In these circumstances it was natural that the 
thoughts of Englishmen should turn to the most 
noted and most popular of military leaders, the official 
head of the Queen's land forces. Essex was, as we 
have seen, fractious and ill-tempered at the time, 
" chased," as he says, " into exile " by the Queen, 
" whose indignation did take hold of all things that 
might feed it, and that you did willinglyest hear 
those that did kindle it." ..." Yet when the un- 
happy news came from yonder cursed country of 
Ireland, and I apprehended how much your Majesty 
would be grieved to have your armies beaten, and 
your kingdom like to be conquered by the son of a 
smith, duty was strong enough to rouse me out of 
my deadliest melancholy : I posted up, and first 
ofi'ered my attendance, and afterwards my poor ad- 
vice in writing to your Majesty ; but your Majesty 
rejected both me and my letter." ^ The reason for 
the Queen's anger was that Essex refused to speak 

^ Even immediately after the victory of Armagh, there were bitter 
complaints from Irishmen of the tyranny of Tyrone and O'Donnell, 
2 Essex to the Queen, August 26, 1 598 (Hatfield Papers). 



336 TREASON AND PLOT 

in the Council, or to give any opinion except to 
Elizabeth herself, and this was a pretext for a fresh 
series of heady complaints on the one side, replied to 
by harsh treatment on the other. 

At length, at the beginning of October, the Queen, 
who hated to lose sight of him, made him some 
amends, and the Earl returned to court, "in as 
good terms, they say, as ever he was." But still he 
was disappointed. The Mastership of the Court of 
Wards, vacant by the death of Burghley, would have 
produced a large revenue to pay his vast debts ; but 
it was refused to him, and was going to his enemy, 
Cecil : the Lord Treasurership had been given over 
his head to Buckhurst : the Queen was still tart 
with him, for she had sworn to humble him, and 
had not forgotten, nor ever would forget, the per- 
sonal slight he had put upon her, like a spoiled 
child, on the occasion of their last squabble.^ The 
wise Lord-Keeper Egerton had written to him on 
that occasion, gravely warning him that unless he 

1 It was on the occasion of a discussion as to tlie appointment of a 
new Viceroy of Ireland. The Queen and Cecil wished to send Sir 
William KnoUys, the Queen's second cousin and Essex's uncle. The 
Earl, however, was pleased to consider that this was a trick of the 
Cecil party to reduce the number of his friends at Court, and tem- 
pestuously urged the appointment of Sir George Carew, a cousin of 
Kalegh's and an adherent of the Cecil party. When the Queen re- 
butted his opinion, he ostentatiously turned his back upon her, where- 
upon the irate sovereign boxed his ears, and told him to go and be 
hanged. The Earl then clapped his hand to his sword, and swore he 
would take such an indignity from no one — not even Henry VIII. He 
was restrained by the Lord Admiral, and forbidden the presence for 
some time afterwards. He came back, as we have related in the text, 
as a result of the efforts of his friends and of his own expressions of 
lovelorn desperation to the Queen ; but he was still consumed with a 
hatred worse than ever for Cecil, Kalegh, Cobham, Howard, and every 
one else who presumed to exist by his side without being his abject slave. 



ESSEX TO COMMAND IN IRELAND 337 

obtained a victory over his own temper, he would go 
downhill to certain destruction; his mother, the Coun- 
tess of Leicester, tearfully prayed her "sweet Robin " 
to humble himself before his sovereign — a woman. 

But though the Earl had been wheedled back to 
court by his friends, he was still unhumbled, and 
at the meetings of the Council to discuss the affairs 
of Ireland he would only flout and sneer at what 
was proposed by others. Every viceroy, he said, 
had failed because he had not struck swiftly and 
boldly at the heart of the trouble ; but had com- 
pounded and paltered with traitors. Nothing and 
nobody pleased or satisfied him. When his friend 
Lord Montjoy was proposed as viceroy, he cavilled 
at his capability and scoffed at his comparative 
poverty. Finally, at a suggestion that he might 
undertake the task himself, Essex was almost 
forced, by his attitude towards all other sugges- 
tions, to acquiesce. No sooner had he done so than 
he began to make demands and conditions. He 
must have fuller powers than ever had been granted 
to a viceroy before ; he must have an army much 
larger than had previously been authorised ; and, 
•above all, he must have warrant under the great 
seal to return, if he pleased, in a year. When 
€ecil was absent in France in the summer of 1598, 
Bacon had written to Essex urging the latter to take 
charge of Irish affairs ; but now that the Earl had 
committed himself to the grave responsibility, his 
friends — and amongst them Bacon, by his own 
showing ^ — saw the trap into which his fractiousness 

1 The letter from Bacon, urging him to take Irish affairs in hand, is 
printed in " Cabala." The assertion that he did not persuade him is 

Y 



338 TREASON AND PLOT 

had led him and begged him to refuse the com- 
mand. Egerton also wrote to the Earl pointing out 
the risk of failure, the danger of his absence from 
court, and the ungrateful nature of the service he 
had undertaken. Essex would fain have withdrawn, 
but now he dared not ; and already there was seeth- 
ing in his mind that plan of his, by which he 
dreamed of imposing his authority over all others 
by means of the forces of the Queen under his 
command.^ The project was a mad and a wicked 
one, but Essex was crazy with vanity and ambition. 

All through the winter the fresh demands of 
Essex, conditional upon his acceptance of the com- 
mand, caused the question of his appointment to 
waver. He was, wrote Chamberlain (November 22), 
to go in " February or March with as ample a com- 
mission as ever any had ; the conditions whereof 
it were lost labour to set down, because they vary 
and alter every week ; and withal, his going is not 
resolved so fully but that once in ten days it is 
in question." And again, on the 8th December 
the same letter- writer says : " The rebels grow daily 
both in heart and strength ; and what is worse, the 
great ones of that country, and those that have 
always been thought soundest, use the matter so 

made by Bacon in his disingenuous attempt, long afterwards, to justify 
tis vile treatment of his patron when he had fallen (Bacon to the 
Earl of Devonshire). 

^ Bacon in his apology for his conduct to Essex, written to the Earl 
of Devonshire, says that Essex believed that the Queen could only be 
successfully managed by compulsion ; and it is probable that the prin- 
cipal object of his desire to go to Ireland was to have under him an 
army large enough to overcome all resistance to him. We shall see 
later how he proposed to employ the forces entrusted to him by his 
sovereign. 



ESSEX WAVERS 



339 



that they be not out of suspicion ; for neither do 
they any service themselves nor assist those who 
would do it. . . . The Earl of Essex's journey 
thither is neither fast nor loose, but holds still in 
suspense, by reason the proportions thought fit for 
such an enterprise are daily dipt and diminished ; 
for it was first set down that his number (with those 
already there) should be 14,000, with full allowance 
of victual-money, &c. ; but whether they think the 
matter may be compassed with less charge, or that 
we be not able to beare such a burthen,^ these rates 
are brought lower ; wherewith he is nothing pleased : 
and on these terms it stands." 

During all this bickering and uncertainty Essex 
was besieged with applications for commissions and 
ofi"ers of service in his ranks. His lavish scattering 
of knighthoods and loot at Cadiz, and his personal 
splendour, now at his height, had made him the 
most popular man in England, both with the 
younger gentry, who swore by him as their leader, 
and amongst the London crowd, whose heart he had 
gained by his anti-Catholic politics and his solici- 
tude for the welfare of his soldiers in war. Shortly 
before Christmas the idea of his going to Ireland 
was entirely abandoned for a time, on some question 
of the Queen's forgiving a great debt nominally 
owing to her by him. " But whether it were that 

1 The Queen was extremely short of money at the time, and only on 
very onerous terms could she obtain a loan of ;^ 150,000 from the Lon- 
don bankers. So hard pressed was she that it was feared she would 
have recourse to her father's bad old plan of a benevolence, and she 
was " faine to descend to mean men, and pick up here and there as 
she can get it. You must think they were neere driven when they 
found out me as a fit man to lend money " (John Chamberlain, State- 
Papers, Domestic). 



340 TREASON AND PLOT 

matter or some other, all is turned upside down, and 
he (Essex) and Mr. Secretary (Cecil) have so good 
a leisure that they ply the tables hard in the 
presence chamber, and play so round a game as if 
Ireland were to be recovered at Irish ^' (i.e. back- 
gammon). At length the Queen gave way, pardoned 
him ^32,000 of debt, and danced a gaillard with 
him on Twelfth-day, " very richly and freshly at- 
tired," though even on so festive an occasion as 
this, the Earl must needs come to open quarrel, 
and almost combat, with the aged Lord-Admiral 
Howard.^ All the young nobles flocked round 
their leader again. Derby, Rutland, Southampton, 
Windsor, Grey, Audley, Cromwell, and knights by 
the score, competed for his smile ; whereupon the 
Queen grew jealous, and forbade many of them to 
accompany him. ** Some suspect it is his owne 
doing, because he is not able to give them all satis- 
faction, but I am not of that opinion," says John 
Chamberlain, who was probably right. 

At length, in March, the matter was finally settled, 
though not before all the court was set by the ears 

^ A Spanish spy in England writes thus on January 24, 1 599 : 
" The preparations for Ireland are being pushed forward, but the Earl 
of Essex will not be ready to sail until the middle of March. He is 
meeting with many impediments . . . and his rivals particularly wish 
him to sail without his stores, which they promise to send after him. 
But he insists upon taking at least six months' provisions with him. 
He asserts that he learns from men recently in Spain that the King is 
making great preparations to aid the Irish rebels, and he (Essex) 
demands more stores. But the Lord-Admiral greatly opposes this, 
saying that it is not true, and this year the King of Spain is not 
making, and cannot make, any preparations against Ireland. They 
are much at issue about this, and had even arranged to fight a duel 
but the Queen would not allow it (MSS. Simancas, Spanish Calendar, 
vol. iv.). 



ESSEX LANDS IN IRELAND 341 

by Essex's fretful humours and his universal jealousy. 
He wished to go and he wished to stay. He hated 
his opponents for their eagerness to aid him in his 
journey and so get rid of him, and he was equally 
angry with those who sought to stay him. He 
wished for the armed power to coerce the Queen, 
and yet he dreaded to leave her surrounded by those 
who bore him no love. But he had gone too far 
now to back out, and on the 13th April 1599 he 
landed in Dublin, the most splended viceroy that 
Ireland had ever seen, attended by the flower of the 
English nobility and an army of 20,000 foot and 
over 1300 horse.^ The powers he bore were those 
of a sovereign, though he assumed the title of Lord- 
Lieutenant only. His power of pardon extended 
even to crimes of treason against the person of the 
Queen, and the highest officers in Ireland were at 
his mercy ; even the sovereign's letters-patent might 
be suspended by him. He had the disposal of the 
rebels' lands he conquered, subject only to a chief 
rent to the crown. He might create barons and 
issue treasury warrants of his own ; his writ was 
made to supersede in Ireland that of the English 
Privy Council, and the command of the fleet in the 
Irish seas passed from the hands of the Lord- 
Admiral into those of Essex. 

The ill-balanced young man who wielded these 
great prerogatives, backed by the largest armed force 
that England could muster, was in a ' dangerous 
frame of mind. His heart was raging with jealous 

^ Chamberlain wrote : " They talks likewise of carrienge over two 
or three hundred mastives to werry {i.e. worry) the Irish, or rather (as 
I take it) their cattell." 



342 TREASON AND PLOT 

pride, and the knowledge that the simpering hunch- 
back he hated had outwitted him at every point ; 
that the semi-Papist Howards were at court, and 
that the clever middle-aged upstart Ralegh was 
posing in his glittering silver cuirass at the Queen's 
side, whilst he, young, high-born, and a greater 
favourite than Ralegh ever had been, was con- 
signed by his own ill-temper to a hard inglorious 
struggle against half-savage rebels, in a hateful land 
that had engulfed his father's life and fortune.^ 
Above all, in his absence and that of his friends, 
the ground would be clear for Cecil and his party 
to complete those arrangements which he knew to 
be in progress for commencing a new reign when 
the old Queen should die, under auspices which 
would finally consign the magnificent Essex to 
obscurity or worse. 

In these circumstances it was inevitable that Essex 
should think more of his own future than of the 
special service that he had undertaken ; and almost 

^ Instance his famous and oft-quoted letter to the Queen at this 
time, beginning, "From a mind delighting in sorrow, from spirits 
wasted with passion, from a heart torn to pieces with care, grief, and 
travail, from a man that hateth himself and all things else that keep 
him alive, what service can your Majesty expect, since any service 
past deserves no more than banishment and proscription to the cursed- 
est of all islands?" (Birch). From Markham's letter to Harrington, 
printed by the latter in his Nugce Antiques, it is evident that the court 
was fully alive to the danger of Essex's position, and to the distrust 
the Queen still felt of him. " Observe the man who commandeth and 
yet is commanded himself ; he goeth not forth to serve the Queen's 
realm but to humour his own revenge. ... If he performs in the field 
what he hath promised in the Council, all will be well ; but though the 
Queen hath granted forgiveness for his late demeanour in her presence, 
we know not what to think. ... I sore fear what may happen. . . . 
You have difficult matters to encounter besides Tyrone and the 
rebels." 



ESSEX'S DISOBEDIENCE 343 

the first exercise of his prerogative on Irish soil was 
to violate the Queen's express command. The fool- 
ish, flighty young Earl of Southampton had, with 
Essex's connivance, contracted a secret marriage with 
Miss Vernon, the cousin of the latter. Southampton 
had retired to France for a time, in order to escape 
the anger of the Queen when his marriage was dis- 
covered. In Paris he took to gambling and lost the 
remains of his fortune, and on his return to London 
was sent to prison for marrying without the Queen's 
permission. He was released at the continued im- 
portunity of Essex, but when the Earl proposed 
before his departure to appoint Southampton com- 
mander of the cavalry in Ireland, the Queen angrily 
forbade such an appointment in favour of a man who 
had offended her. Essex broke this royal behest, 
and placed Southampton at the head of the cavalry 
soon after he arrived in Ireland. It was probably 
meant for a deliberate trial of strength between 
him and the Queen, and if so, it failed miserably. 
He had begun before he left England to complain 
and doubt about the support that would be ac- 
corded to him. "If I have not inward comfort 
and outward demonstration of her Majesty's favour 
I am defeated in England," he wrote on April 5 
from Cheshire. He sent back Sir Christopher 
Blount, his father-in-law, in a huff, because the 
Queen would not allow him to be sworn a member 
of the Irish Council. " If," he wrote complainingly, 
" I, going to manage a difficult war and to govern a 
dissolute and undisciplined army, have to consult 
with a council to whom her Majesty imputeth almost 
the loss of a kingdom, without one able assistant to 



344 TREASON AND PLOT 

consult, I shall find a lack." ^ If Blount could not 
be a councillor he should not come at all. He was 
" being maimed beforehand," the Earl grumbled ; 
and when he was on board his ship ready to sail, he 
protested to Cecil " that it is not Tyrone and the 
Irish rebellion that amazeth me, but to see myself 
sent on such an errand, at such a time, with so little 
comfort or ability from the court of England." No- 
thing satisfied him, though to all appearance every 
effort to do so was made by the Council in England ; 
and the Irish Council were effusive in their submis- 
sion and flattery. 

When he took command in Ireland, he found the 
rebels ranging at their will over the country. Carrick- 
fergus, Newry, and Carlingford were the only towns 
in the north held by the Queen ; a good portion of 
Connaught had now revolted ; there were 3000 rebels 
in Leinster, and Munster was practically abandoned 
by English sympathisers, except the walled towns. 
Essex's plan had always been to strike hard at 
Tyrone in his own country, but there were difii- 
culties in the way of which he had known nothing. 
There was no forage in Ulster so early in the year ; 
provisions for the troops must be all led or carried, 
for the country was in the hands of the enemy ; food 
was still very scarce all over Ireland, and the roads 
were impracticable for a great part of the way. So 
Essex was forced to throw over his own plans and 
devote himself to Leinster and Munster, until the 
advanced summer allowed him to tackle the arch- 
rebel in his own fastnesses. The English settle- 
ments in Munster had been a doubtful success ; 

1 Irish State Papers of the date. 



ESSEX IN IRELAND 345 

there was bitter hatred between the English and 
Irish, and even between the English themselves : 
the most glaring corruption existed amongst Eng- 
lish officials, and the native Irish could get neither 
justice nor protection except by bribery. Wherever 
the English came into contact with the Irish, the 
latter were robbed and maltreated ; and the country 
people, oppressed by the English and by the rebel 
bands alike, were reduced to utter famine, " with 
nothing but roots, grass, and boiled nettles to eat.'^ 
The people of Connaught had " already eaten their 
garrans, and were now living on the ground and 
eating dogs' flesh." ^ 

It was in this disastrous state of affairs that Essex, 
still bewailing and complaining, started, on May 9, 
i599» for his journey through Leinster and Munster. 
He had, in the period since his arrival, reduced the 
chaos in Dublin to something like order, but he 
clamoured in vain for still larger reinforcements ^ 
and increased supplies from England. To his in- 
dignation he was told that he must get volunteers 
from the English in Ireland. They were cowards, 
he said, and would not fight ; even the soldiers he 
had brought from England with him were a poor 
lot, and much inferior in "hardness" to the rebels. 
The latter had now in the field an organised army — 
7000 men under Tyrone near Armagh, and another 
body of 4000 under O'Donnell in Connaught, besides 
smaller bands all over the country. There was still 
much talk of a Spanish force coming to their aid,^ 

1 Irish State Papers, passim. 

2 The reinforcement of 2000 men was not due in Ireland till June i. 
2 When Essex was on his march throuj-\ Munster, he learnt (June 

1 5) that two small ships of munitions and treasure had arrived from 



346 TREASON AND PLOT 

and Essex did not for a moment beguile himself or 
the Queen with hopes of an easy victory. 

But he found the guerilla warfare to which he was 
committed in an enemy's country even harder and 
more distasteful than he had thought. His pas- 
sage through Leinster was comparatively unopposed. 
Rebel castles surrendered to him with but little 
resistance, and the bands generally scattered as he 
attacked them ; but the constant harassing of his 
flanks and cutting-off of his stragglers gave him a 
foretaste of the task before him. " This war," he 
wrote, "is likely to exercise both our faculties that 
do manage it, and her Majesty's patience that must 
maintain it." His men, he complained, had " neither 
bodies, spirits, nor practice of arms," The enemy 
were light and swift — " rogues and naked beggars," 
he called them — who could elude the English in 
mountains and morasses after delivering their attack. 
At Cahir a force of 5000 rebels were encountered, 
and the castle was captured.^ Then, after passing 

Spain in Loch Foyle, but no men ; but, as we have seen, the reports of 
the preparations in Spain to send a large force were constant. The 
Adelantado seconded the Irish demands, and the bigoted, inexperienced 
young king was burning to undertake the " enterprise of England." 
But he was absolutely bankrupt, and his new guide and favourite, the 
Duke of Lerma, was in favour of deferring the undertaking for that 
year. Lerma, of course, had his way, as will be related in the text. 
About the same time (June 1599) Tyrone also received several cargoes 
of munitions in Scottish ships, either from Scotland or from France 
and Flanders. 

1 Elizabeth was very indignant at this small result of Essex's journey. 
The capture of Cahir Castle she ridiculed as the mere " taking of an 
Irish hold from a rabble of rogues ' (Irish State Papers, Elizabeth to 
Essex, July 19, 1599). Lord Cahir was already in the hands of the 
English, and his castle was surrendered by the rebels at his request 
with hardly a show of resistance. Cecil, writing to Sir Henry Neville 
in France (July 14), explained the little effect produced in Munster by 



ESSEX IN IRELAND 347 

through Limerick, Essex had to fight and push his 
way through the Desmond country, inflicting a con- 
siderable defeat upon the Catholic Desmond him- 
self on June 11, finally arriving at Waterford on 
the 2 1 St. 

Whilst he was on this march he received the 
peremptory order from the Queen to dismiss South- 
ampton, and he wrote in reply the letter, which has 
often been printed, in which he so passionately 
■defends himself and his friend. But here Essex 
suffered his first fall, for he dared not refuse to 
obey the Queen's indignant command, and South- 
ampton was dismissed. The temper of Essex at 
the time is shown by another letter from him (25th 
June) to the Queen herself, giving her an account 
of his movements and plans. As usual, it is full of 
complaints. *' But why," he asks, " should I talk 
of victory or success ? Is it not known that from 
England I receive nothing but discomforts and soul's 
wounds ? Is it not spoken in the army that your 
Majesty's favour is diverted from me, and that 
already you do bode ill both to me and it ? Is it not 
believed by the rebels that those whom you most 
favour do more hate me out of faction than them 
out of duty or conscience? Is it not lamented of 
your Majesty's faithfullest subjects, both here and 
there, that a Cobham or a Ralegh (I forbear others 
for their places' sake) should have such credit and 
favour with your Majesty, when they wish the ill- 
success of your Majesty's most important action, 
the decay of your greatest strength, and the destruc- 

Essex by saying, " But the rouges sliunne fight, and so know how to 
spend us and eat us out with tyme " (Winwood Papers). 



348 TREASON AND PLOT 

tion of your faithfullest servants ? Yes ! yes ! I 
do see both my own destiny and your Majesty's 
decree." This was both wicked and wrong-headed. 
There was no desire on the part of the moderate 
members of the Queen's Government that he should 
fail in Ireland, and his suggestion that the army 
itself was discontented was intended as a veiled 
threat. It is plain to see that his jealousy had 
warped his judgment, and that he believed all men 
to be leagued together for his ruin. This belief, 
real or pretended, hurried him on to his own de- 
struction. 

And thus he slowly returned to Dublin, raging 
against the Queen's angry disapproval of his march 
through Leinster and Munster. On his way back 
he had been obliged to make a detour. In his 
absence Sir John Harrington had endeavoured to 
punish and suppress the O'Byrnes and O'Tooles, 
who were ravaging Wicklow. The English force, 
depleted by dishonesty, desertion, and drafts for 
service elsewhere, only reached about 300 men, 
and Harrington found on arriving at Wicklow, 
that he was surrounded by hordes of rebels, far 
exceeding his own strength. In attempting to 
secure his retreat to the town of Wicklow over 
a ford on the Ranelagh, he was attacked in the 
rear. Panic seized the pikemen — " base, cowardly, 
ill-guided clowns," as Essex calls them — and they 
fled incontinently, casting away their arms, accoutre- 
ments, and even their garments, most of them being 
overtaken and slaughtered by the rebels. The 
wavering chiefs of the O'Byrnes, O'Moores, O'Con- 
nors, and Kavanaghs rallied to the victorious side, 



RETURN TO DUBLIN 349 

and Essex was forced to turn aside and face the 
united army of the Leinster rebels at Arklow. He 
had now only 1200 fighting men with him, for he 
had left garrisons at various places on his march ; 
and at one time during the ensuing fight it looked 
as if he must be overwhelmed, for his guides had 
misled him, and the rebels caught him in an am- 
bush. But a charge of heavy horse saved the day, 
and the Leinster men were beaten. This was on 
the 29th June, and early in July Essex entered 
Dublin dispirited and distempered in mind and 
body. 

His march through ttie provinces had produced 
no important effect upon the rebels. None of the 
chiefs had submitted. The little garrisons he had 
scattered about were all surrounded, and the armies 
of the northern rebels remained intact and powerful. 
Rebuke and stern reproof came from the Queen 
and her Council,^ whereupon Essex again bewailed 
bis hard fate in piteous and eloquent letters, saying 
that he was being stabbed in the back by enemies in 
London. The Council tried to appease him with dig- 

^ "You must needs think that we, that have the eyes of foreign 
princes upon our actions, and have the heart of the people to comfort 
and cherish, who groan under the burden of continual levies and 
impositions, which are occasioned by these late actions, can little 
please ourselves with anything that hath been effected " (Elizabeth to 
Essex, July 19, 1599, State Papers, Irish). 

With regard to Essex's complaints of the enmity of the Queen's chief 
Ministers against him, the Council wrote gravely : " We can only say 
this, that those imputations of any indisposition towards you are so 
improper to us, as we will neither do your Lordship that wrong to take 
them as so intended, nor ourselves that injury to excuse them " {ibid,.). 

John Chamberlain writes from London (28th June) : " The Queene 
is nothing satisfied with the Earl of Essex manner of proceeding, nor 
likes anything that is done. She sayes she allowes him loool. a day 
to go in progresse." 



350 TREASON AND PLOT 

niiied assurances and expressions of confidence; but 
they, too, were forced to point out that all had been 
done that was possible to send him the resources 
he had demanded. The Queen ridiculed the idea 
of his being wilfully injured by his enemies at court, 
and became haughtily angry at his veiled menace 
that many of the gentlemen in his train were so 
annoyed at her treatment of him in the matter of 
Southampton that they desired to return to England. 
At length she grew tired of his childish petu- 
lance, and peremptorily ordered the Earl (July 30) 
to proceed against Tyrone — " that base bush-kern," 
as she called him — who, through bad management 
on the part of the English, had now "come to 
be accounted so famous a rebel" as to need the 
employment of many thousands of soldiers to sup- 
press him. She had spent vast sums of money, 
she said, specially with this end, and yet " the 
base rebels shall see this golden calf preserve him- 
self without taint or loss." There must be no more 
whimpering and dallying on the part of Essex. He 
was to go at once with the forces he had and engage 
Tyrone. "And after you shall have certified us to 
what form you have reduced things in the north, 
what hath been the success, and whom you and the 
Council could wish to leave with that charge behind ; 
and that being done, you shall with all speed 
receive our warrant, ivitliout ivhich ive do charge 
you, as you tender our pleasure, that you adventure 
not to come out of that kingdom by virtue of any 
former license ivhatever." ^ 

^ Elizabeth to Essex, July 30, 1599, Irish. State Papers. A week 
later she wrote again, sternly rebuking Essex for not going on his 



ESSEX STARTS FOR ULSTER 351 

Before he received this letter a serious blow fell 
upon the English. Sir Conyers Clifford, the Pre- 
sident of Connanght, was completely defeated by 
O'Donnell at the Curlews, Clifford and all the princi- 
pal officers being killed, and 450 men being slain or 
wounded in their headlong flight. Urged by this 
disaster and by the Queen's reproaches, Essex hastily 
recruited 2000 more Irish troops during the harvest- 
time, and informed the officers of his forces and 
the Anglo-Irish Lords and gentry of his intention 
to set out at once for the invasion of Ulster. He 
had not available for the field more than 3500 foot 
and 300 horse. His men, as he was never tired 
of writing, were mostly shirkers, cowards, and 
malingerers.^ He had only two, or at most three, 
general officers upon whom he could depend, and 
his company and regimental officers were more 
concerned in lining their pockets by peculation 
and bribery than in fighting. The Connaught chiefs, 
even O'Connor-Sligo, and the " English " head 
of the Bourkes, it was feared, had fallen away in 

errand at once, instead of arguing about it, and she threatened to call 
him to strict account unless he promptly obeyed. She would not 
allow her kingdoms, her honour, and the lives of her subjects to be 
trifled with any longer. " We see the bitter effects of our long-suffer- 
ings." She throws, however, most of the blame on the Irish Council, 
whom she abuses roundly for their Papist sympathies (Elizabeth to 
Essex, August 8, ibid.). 

1 " Her Majesty payeth many, but hath her service followed by 
few," he wrote at this period, "for every garrison is an hospital, 
where our degenerate countrymen are glad to entertain sickness, as a 
supersedeas for their going into the field ; and every remove of an 
Irish company is almost the breaking of it." Again, " They disband 
daily : the Irish go over to the rebels by herds ; and the others 
make strange adventures to steal over ; and some force themselves 
sick, and lie like creatures that neither have hearts nor souls" 
(Essex to the Council, Irish State Papers). 



352 TREASON AND PLOT 

consequence of Clifford's defeat, and O'Donnell 
was now as supreme in the west, as Tyrone was in 
the north ; the rebel armies reaching a total of at 
least 16,000 men. 

All these discouraging circumstances were urged 
by Essex's council-of-war to dissuade him from pro- 
ceeding to Ulster ; but the orders of the Queen were 
so positive that Essex dared not disobey, and on the 
28th iVugust he and his unfit little army set forth, 
leaving affairs in Leinster somewhat better than they 
Tiad been/ It was shrewdly suspected that Tyrone 
would repeat his old policy of parley and delay, and 
Essex, in order to bring him to an engagement, and 
at the same time to secure the future safety of the 
Pale, determined to make Kells his base, advancing 
thence into Ulster by Cavan and Monaghan, driving 
back Tyrone to his own far northern strongholds. 
On arriving at Kells, however, it was found that 
Tyrone with 8000 men was in the neighbourhood, 
and an advance of Essex towards Cavan would have 
left the road open for the rebels to ravage the Pale. 
On the 4th September the English found themselves 
at Ardagh, in full sight of Tyrone's forces, which 
lay on a hill opposite to them, with the river Lagan 
Tunninsr between. There was some little skirmish- 

o 

1 Donnell Spainagli (Kavanagli), the Munster chief, who had been 
aiding the Leinstermen, submitted. The other principal Kavanaghs 
under Brian M'Donagh liad also come in, and Onie M'Rory O'Moore 
had accepted a month's truce, in which some of the principal O'Byrnes 
had joined. The O'Connors, the O'Molloys, and the M'Geoghans were 
still in the field in Leinster. It must be repeated here, as giving the 
key of the situation, that the smaller chieftains were not at all desirous 
of re-establishing the territorial power of the Irish princelings of whom 
they were formerly vassals. They usually hastened to make good 
terms of " composition " for themselves on the first opportunity. 



ESSEX MEETS TYRONE 353 

ing of stragglers and outposts, but no general fight ; 
and as the country was bare of supplies, Essex was 
forced to march down the river towards Louth, 
whither his stores had been sent. Tyrone proceeded 
parallel with him on the other side of the stream 
until they reached the Mills of Louth, where Essex 
crossed and encamped within sight of Tyrone's 
scouts, the main body of the rebels being concealed 
in a wood. 

The next day Tyrone sent to request a parley, 
which Essex refused, but told the messenger that 
on the following morning he would be at the head 
of his troops on a hill between the two camps : if 
Tyrone wished to speak with him, he might seek 
him there. True to his word, Essex drew up his 
array on the hill at the hour named, and on 
advancing to a second hill, upon which were 
stationed Tyrone's cavalry, the latter retired before 
him after a slight skirmish. Finding that Tyrone's 
main force did not show itself, Essex returned to 
his camp, the rebel Earl sending after him another 
message still desiring a conference. Early next 
morning the English set out for Drumcondra, but 
had hardly gone half-a-mile before Tyrone's mes- 
senger, Captain Hagan, overtook him, and said 
that his master desired the Queen's mercy, and 
begged that the Lord-Lieutenant would hear him. 
If the Earl would do so, he said, he (Tyrone) would 
gallop to a ford at Bellaclynthe, which lay in the 
way to Drumcondra, where he would await his 
coming. Essex sent two of his officers ahead to 
reconnoitre this ford, where they found that Tyrone 
had already arrived. The water, however, appeared 

z 



354 TREASON AND PLOT 

to them too deep, and they objected to the place as 
unfit for a conference. "Then," cried Tyrone, "I 
shall despair ever to speak with him." On exami- 
nation, a shallower place was found lower down, and 
thither Essex was conducted, whilst a troop of 
English horse commanded the position from a hill 
overlooking it, and a similar troop of Irish crowned 
a hill on the opposite side. 

Tyrone sat alone, with uncovered head, on his 
horse in the midst of the stream, the water of which 
reached his girths. Bowing low as the Queen's 
representative approached, he bade him welcome to 
Ireland ; and there, with no person within earshot, 
the two Earls held fateful conference for full half- 
an-hour, Essex on hard ground and Tyrone with 
his feet in the running water. Exactly what passed 
at that interview is not known, but spies reported 
that treason to crown and state was covertly plotted.^ 
Tyrone knew that Essex was deeply discontented 
with the Queen's Government, and that he had made 
himself the champion of James Stuart's claim to the 
crown, as against the Cecil plan of forwarding that 
of Arabella with a Flemish-Spanish alliance. At 
the same time letters of sympathy, and even more 
solid aids, were reaching Tyrone from the King of 
Scots ; and there seems nothing improbable, seeing 

^ A spy who professed to be in the bushes hard by, but whose testi- 
mony is open to question, said that when Tyrone bade Essex welcome 
to Ireland, the latter answered, " Nay ! ye are too Scottish to bid me 
welcome." " No, my Lord," replied the Irish chief, " there is no man 
liveth that may better welcome your father's son." " Can I build upon 
that 1 " asked Essex. " Yea ! my lord, ye may be sure of it." This, 
according to the informer Udall, led up to a treasonable understanding 
between them. (See Bathe's and Udall's declarations in Irish State 
Papers, uncalendared, 208, part ii.) 



ESSEX MEETS TYRONE 355 

the temper of Essex and his ambitions, that he may 
have more or less explicitly connived with Tyrone 
on this occasion at a plan for securing the succes- 
sion of James, conjointly with the restoration of the 
territorial princely autonomy of Ireland, or at least 
of Ulster. The Spanish Archbishop of Dublin, in 
the following year, reported to Philip III., on the 
authority of Tyrone, that the latter had "almost 
gained the Earl of Essex, the Queen's commander, 
to leave her side and join your Majesty, surrendering 
the country to you, on the promise of great favours 
in your Majesty's name ; and O'Neil gave him his 
own son as hostage. The Earl did not carry out 
the arrangement, because of his suspicion of your 
Majesty, in consequence of certain acts of his 
against Spain some time ago." ^ It may be doubted 
if this is quite a correct statement of what happened. 
Neither Essex nor Tyrone desired to " surrender the 
country to your Majesty," and it is much more pro- 
bable that the arrangement fell through on the 
question of Tyrone's continued adhesion to Spain 
and the supremacy of Catholicism. The success of 
James and Tyrone under those auspices would not 
have served Essex's plans. Religion was a mere 
stalking-horse for most of the Irish chiefs ; but 
doubtless Tyrone considered it a stronger lever to 
work with, now that he had once adopted it, than 
the aid of a self-seeking hothead like Essex of 
exactly opposite views. 

^ No doubt the sacking of Cadiz, where, however, Essex's behaviour 
was so humane and chivalrous as to have called forth the greatest 
praise ami flattery from Spaniards generally, even from Philip himself ; 
and the Infanta, who^said, " If he treats his enemies thus, how would 
he treat his frieuds ? " 



356 TREASON AND PLOT 

When Essex retired from the secret interview, 
IVrone's base son Con followed him and prayed, 
in his fiither s name, that a conference of a few 
chosen men on each side might then be held. To 
this the Lord-Lieutenant consented, and again he 
descended to the bank of the stream, this time with 
Southampton and five of his principal officers, to 
meet Tyrone and a similar number of Irish chiefs, 
who stood in the stream up to the bellybands of 
their steeds. A further meeting was held next 
morning, and a truce of six weeks was concluded, 
to be extended from six weeks to six weeks till the 
following May, such of the rebels as refused to join 
in the cessation to be left to the mercy of the 
English (September 8, 1599). 

This was the inglorious and impotent conclusion 
of the vaunted government of the spoilt favourite. 
The forces on both sides were withdrawn, Tyrone 
returning into his principality of Ulster, and Essex 
to Drogheda. No attempt even had been made to 
strike at the rebels' strength : his country was un- 
wasted, his crops and cattle safe, his harbours un- 
assailed, and his prestige now higher than ever. 
Above all, what rankled in the heart of Elizabeth 
was the knowledge that all her ''charges" had been 
in vain, and the money she had so painfully borrowed 
was worse than wasted. The letters she wrote to 
her hapless favourite were steeped in bitter scorn ; 
his sneers and cavils at others, the ample resources 
she had provided, his boasting promises of victory, 
his protestations of service, are all paraded before 
him and cruelly contrasted with his weak pusillani- 
mous paltering with the armed rebellion he had been 



ESSEX FLIES TO ENGLAND 357 

sent to crush. His petulant complaints and accu- 
sations of personal enmity are scathingly rebuked. 
" We have seen a writing in manner of a catalogue 
full of challenges that are impertinent and of com- 
parisons that are needless, such as hath not been 
before this time presented to a State, except it be 
done more with a hope to terrify all men from 
censuring your proceedings." ^ He had no power, she 
told him, to make such terms as he had done, though 
now he had done so they should be respected, and 
she hinted more than once to him, who, to do him 
justice, was as brave as he was proud, that he was 
either disloyal or a coward. It must well-nigh have 
broken his heart, but it quite banished his judgment. 
He knew how his presence affected the Queen, and 
he dreamed that tears and love-lorn submission at 
her feet, even if he returned against her express 
sovereign command, would still be strong enough to 
overcome her indignation. But weak as she was in 
many things, she was strongest of all in her sense 
of regal duty and her personal dignity. Essex had 
outraged both by his perverse failure and his petulant 
presumption, and henceforward he must be humbled 
to the dust or he must die. He, poor, blind, vain- 
glorious creature, knew it not, but added desertion 
of his post to his past disobedience, and leaving 
Loftus and Carey to govern in his absence, he posted 
over to England without notice. 

"He never drew a sword," sneered the Irish, " but 
to dub knights,^ and, like a hasty messenger, he ran 

' Elizabeth to Essex, September 14, 1599, Irish State Papers. 
2 He had given great offence to Elizabeth by his lavish creation of 
knights in Normandy and at Cadiz, and a " knight of Cales " became a 



358 TREASON AND PLOT 

away before he had finished his errand." As fast as 
posthorses could bring him he rode to Westminster, 
where he learned that the court was at Nonsuch. 
Then crossing to Lambeth and seizing such horses as 
were waiting there for their masters, he sped on to the 
Queen's house. Lord Grey de Wilton passed him 
on the road, and riding ahead, was able to warn 
Cecil of the Earl's coming some ten minutes before 
his arrival. The Queen was not yet about when, 
at ten o'clock in the morning of Michaelmas Day, 
1599, Essex alighted at Nonsuch gate. He was 
mud-bespattered and haggard with his headlong 
journey, but he waited not a moment. Pressing 
forward through the presence chamber and ante- 
rooms, none daring to stay him, he came unbidden 
into the Queen's bed-chamber, where her Majesty 
sat only half-dressed with " her hair about her face." 
Then throwing himself at her feet he kissed her 
hand and prayed for pardon. The Queen was so 
much taken aback that she forbore to chide him, 
and he went with a light heart and smiling face to 



scoffing by-word. It was felt generally that his object was to gain 
adherents to serve his own ambition, but now that fifty-nine knights 
were added to his creations under patent in Ireland during the six 
months he was there, the suspicion was fully confirmed, since there were 
no feats of arms to reward. Chamberlain writes (August 23), derid- 
ing some of the new knights, and continues, " It is much marvelled that 
this humour should so possess him, that, not content with his first 
dozens and scores, he should thus fall to huddle theiu up by the halfe- 
hundreds, and it is noted as a strange thing that a subject in the space 
of seven years (not having been sixe moneths together in any one action) 
sholde upon so litle service and small desert make more knights than 
in all the realme besides. It is doubted if he continue in this course he 
will shortly bring in tag and rag, cut and long taile, and so draw the 
order into contempt." When he returned to England Elizabeth was 
with difficulty dissuaded from unmaking the knights he had dubbed. 



ESSEX AT NONSUCH 359 

put himself in order for further speech with her. 
An hour later he saw her again, and still no angry 
reproaches greeted him. At dinner his friends, 
reassured, flocked to him, and to them he " dis- 
coursed merrily of his travels," and " thanked God 
that, though he had suffered much trouble and 
storms abroad, he found a sweet calm at home." 
Alas ! for him, it was the calm that precedes the 
tornado. Cecil and his friends had stood aloof from 
him, and when the Earl, gay and debonnaire now, 
in easy confidence of his influence over the Queen, 
went to see her after dinner, he found her changed. 
With haughty severity she directed him to attend 
her Council and give to them an account of his 
proceedings in Ireland and an explanation of his 
disobedient return. 

With bowed, uncovered head and apologetic 
mien, he stood before the men he hated and con- 
temned, whilst he palliated, excused, and apologised 
for what he had done or left undone. That evening 
Essex was a prisoner under arrest, and for many 
days to come he stood daily before the Council, 
making the best of a sorry business, but full of 
plans still by which he dreamed of crushing at one 
blow these men, who were, he thought, banded to- 
gether to weaken or subject English Protestantism, 
and to ruin its strongest champion, Robert Devereux, 
Earl of Essex. How could he foresee that the sly 
little man whose brain directed the forces against 
him would betray and destroy his own associates, and 
reach lifelong power by the road that Essex himself 
meant to tread In the meanwhile all went merry 
as a marriage bell with the Cecil party ; and the day 



36o TREASON AND PLOT 

after Essex's arrest, "Mr. Secretary" gave a great 
banquet, at which were gathered the Howards and 
Talbots, Arabella's uncle Shrewsbury, Cobham, Gray, 
Carew, and Ralegh — all the men against whom 
the fallen favourite had raged and stormed in his 
pride. 



CHAPTER XI 

The aspect of the succession question in England — Cecil and Essex — 
Negotiations for peace with Spain — Renewed alarm of Spanish 
invasion in England — Measures for defence — Probable intentional 
exaggeration of the fears, for political reasons — James continues to 
intrigue with the Catholics for support — The Pope's offer to him — 
Fitzherbert's address to Philip respecting the Scottish advances — 
Lord Semple's mission to Madrid — The future religion of England 
trembling in the balance. 

The two great conspiracies for securing the English 
succession were now bracing themselves for the final 
struggle. The Queen's age had only increased her 
determination that during her lifetime no successor 
to her throne should be acknowledged ; but it was 
obvious to Englishmen of all sorts that some arrange- 
ment must be made for the great change before it 
happened, unless England was to be plunged at the 
critical moment into the vortex of civil war, and 
perhaps foreign invasion. The centres of the two 
conspiracies, which we have seen were formerly in 
Madrid and Rome respectively, had now (1599) 
gradually changed their position to England itself. 
This much, at least, had been gained by the proved 
ability of Englishmen to defend their country against 
foreign invasion or dictation, and by the increased 
patriotic pride which the brilliant reign of the Queen 
had infused into all of her subjects ; but, neverthe- 
less, each of the two factions which divided the 
English court still looked for outside support and 

alliance to strengthen and justify its action. 

361 



362 TREASON AND PLOT 

It is extremely difficult to define clearly the exact 
limits of each conspiracy ; for there were many sub- 
sidiary and personal issues, abundant lying and 
betrayal on either hand, and, so far as was possible, 
a studious concealment of action and aim. But, 
generally speaking, the patent impotence of Spain 
now to enforce her religious views upon England, 
and the erection of the Belgic provinces into a 
separate sovereignty, had caused a tendency to re- 
sume in England the old political line of cleavage, 
which had been obscured for many years by the new 
religious groupings consequent on the B,eformation. 
The moderate or old-fashioned English element, 
the germ of the present Conservative party, largely 
influenced by respect for the past and by Catholic 
traditions, looked again to a close Belgic alliance, 
which necessarily mean either a mild tolerant Catho- 
lic supremacy like that existing in France, or the 
continuance of the Anglican establishment with such 
toleration to Catholics as was allowed by Henry IV. 
to the Huguenots. Of this party, which included the 
heads of the old nobility, the Howards, Stanleys, 
Talbots, Grevilles, Brookes, Somersets, Herberts, and 
their like, Sir Robert Cecil was supposed to be the 
head, or at least the brain ; but whatever may have 
been the ultimate object of most of the members, it 
is certain that Cecil himself never intended that the 
Anglican Church as established should be over- 
thrown or radically altered in a Catholic sense, as a 
result of any action of his party. Although nearly 
all English Catholic priests and laymen — except only 
the Jesuit faction — belonged to this group, Cecil in 
his official relations always maintained an attitude 



TWO DYNASTIC FACTIONS 363 

of strict reserve, not to say severity, towards the pro- 
fessors of the old religion ; and, as we have seen by 
Father Watson's letter on page 315, had expressly 
repudiated even the word "toleration" in connection 
with them.^ 

The other dynastical conspiracy was headed by 
Essex, who had succeeded his stepfather, Leicester, 
in his position as leader of the men professing the 
newer or reformed ideas. Around him were grouped 
the Puritan elements, which resented the retention 
of Catholic forms or traditions in Anglican worship, 
and sought to perpetuate the alienation from Spain 
and Spanish Belgium, which had been brought about 
by Philip's arrogant attempt to dictate the religion 
to England. To semi-Huguenot France and Presby- 
terian Scotland this party naturally turned its eyes : 
and, broadly, in politics Essex stood for a French- 
Scottish alliance, and Cecil for a Belgic-Spanish 
alliance. The issues were, however, infinitely com- 
plicated by the self-seeking attempt of James VI. 
to intersect both conspiracies by his own lines of 
intrigue. He was tireless in his attempts to obtain 

^ Many instances of this are seen in Cecil's treatment of the Catholics 
whom he employed as spies. The priests of the " loyal" faction were 
treated almost as harshly as the Jesuit fathers. "Writing to Sir Henry 
Neville in Paris, with reference to applications of Charles Paget, Sir 
Thomas Tresham, Father Cecil, and other repentant refugees, for par- 
don and permission to return to England, Cecil says that he knows 
very well that if they have fallen out with the Jesuits, it is from no 
love of England, but to work their own ends. If the refugees like to 
do any real service to show their hearts are changed, their cases may 
hi', considered ; but they need not hope for pardon on mere professions 
or upon sending information which may be false. Cecil speaks of all 
these refugee Englishmen in the most offensive terms. He calls his 
namesake, John Cecil, who for ten years past had given him informa- 
tion, " a lewd priest with an honest name " (see Winwood Papers). 



364 TREASON AND PLOT 

some recognition of his right from Elizabeth ; but 
when he at last understood that neither cajoler}' 
nor menace could win that from her, he made 
efforts to obtain the countenance of the principal 
statesmen of her court. The Abbot of Kinloss 
(Edward Bruce), his agent for the purpose in 
England, could triumphantly point out to Catholics 
that James's actions showed that he was on their 
side. His agents in Rome, and the Archbishop of 
Glasgow in Paris, were busy impressing the same 
fact upon the non-Spanish Catholic powers ; whilst 
Denmark and the German princes, as well as the 
mass of English Protestants, were attracted not only 
by the strength of his legal claims, which were 
laboriously enforced by means of pamphlets and 
treatises, but they were also urged to support him 
as the main bulwark against renewed Spanish ag- 
gression. Essex himself, James's principal hench- 
man in England, Puritan though he was, and 
gravely apprehensive of the King's dallying with 
Papists, attracted Catholics to his side by promising 
toleration for their religion. On the other hand, 
the moderate party of Cecil was gaining Puritan 
sympathy by their severity towards Catholics and 
their rejection of all suggestions of toleration. 
Personal rivalry and jealousy further complicated 
an already involved position, and finally, each party 
for its own ends chose to blacken its opponents 
by attributing to them objects which they must 
have known to be false. They have thus led 
astray not only their own generation but all the 
generations that have succeeded them. The Essex 
party, for instance, loudly proclaimed that Cecil 



TWO DYNASTIC FACTIONS 365 

and his friends, especially Cobham and Ralegh, 
had arranged to sell England to the Infanta, which 
at the time was absurd, and is now, perhaps for the 
first time, demonstrably untrue ; whilst the "mode- 
rates " cast upon Essex the reproach that he sought 
by armed force to seize the crown of England for 
himself/ 

Outside the two main conspiracies there was the 
old irreconcilable Jesuit-Spanish party, greatly re- 
duced now by its unpopularity in England and by 
repeated failure, but still bragging about the 
thrusting of the Spanish form of Catholicism with 
a Spanish monarch upon England, with or against 
her will. After the death of Philip II. this party 
in Spain itself temporarily flared into hope again. 

^ Even James seems to liave been persuaded that this was the case 
soon after Essex's death — though he must have changed his mind when 
he became King of England — for he always called Essex "my martyr" 
and loaded his son with favours, whilst he disgraced Ralegh and 
Cobham. In the often printed letter, written by the Earl of Northum- 
berland to James in 1601 (Hatfield Papers), assuring him of the general 
consensus of feeling in his favour amongst all classes in England, the 
Earl refers to a remark made by James, that he " had lost no great 
friend " by Essex's death, and confirms this opinion as follows : 
" Although he was a man endued with good gifts, yet was his loss 
the happiest chance for your Majesty and England that could befall us ; 
for either do I fail in my judgment, or he would have been a bloody 
scourge to our nation. . . . Did he not decree that it was scandalous 
to our nation that a stranger should be our king? Was not his 
familiarity with me quite cancelled when he discovered my disposition 
leaning to your right, and that I was not to be led by his fortunes ? . . . 
How often have I heard that he inveighed against you amongst such 
as he conceived to be birds of his own fortune? Did his soldier- 
followers dream but of his being King of England ?" Northumberland 
continues in this strain for several pages ; but he was a poor, mean- 
spirited creature, and was evidently currying favour for himself by 
blackening his dead brother-in-law, so that his evidence against Essex 
does not go for much, if even the writer was honestly stating his 
conviction. 



366 TREASON AND PLOT 

The young King, whose education was narrow and 
bigoted, dreamed of carrying with a rush the great 
object at which his father had toiled fruitlessly for 
so long. Spain was to resume her greatness and 
her strength under a new energetic ruler, and the 
Catholic supremacy was to make her predominant 
in the world. The Adelantado and the Count de 
Fuentes, hot-headed fanatics both, were for ever 
breathing fire and fury against the heretics ; the 
bishops and Jesuits who flocked about the court 
were as sanctimoniously truculent as ever, and, for 
a time, the conquest of England seemed easy and 
imminent to these extremists. But in the course of 
our story we shall see that sloth, waste, and a love 
of pleasure, joined to the utter prostration and cor- 
ruption that had overtaken the people, paralysed 
the action of Spain more effectually even than 
the niggard centralisation of the greater Philip 
had done. 

Tyrone's success introduced another disturbing 
element in the situation, and each party had to take 
into consideration the force that he might bring 
to bear for or against them. For purposes of his 
own, the Irish chief had elected to fight under the 
Catholic banner, and to obtain such help as he 
could from Spain ; but, as we have seen, that did 
not prevent Puritan Essex and James from courting 
him in the interests of the latter, whilst to the 
" moderate " pai'ty in England, Catholics though 
most of the leaders were, it was absolutely vital to 
crush Tyrone utterly, cost what it might ; for they 
knew that the victory of Catholic rebellion in Ireland 
by Spanish arms would have meant the downfall 



THE ENGLISH PARTIES 367 

of the potent edifice of English independence, 
which the Queen and they had so strenuously 
built up. Tyrone might speak fairly now, but neither 
he, nor Essex, nor James, could hold the Spanish 
avalanche if once it was started, crafty as they 
all thought themselves in their efforts to harness 
it to their own chariot. This was the position of 
affairs when, amidst squabbles and jealousies in- 
numerable, Essex went to Ireland in the spring 
of 1599. 

As a result of the approaches made to him, and in 
accordance with the letter he wrote to Philip II. 
(page 330), on his assumption of the sovereignty of 
Flanders for the Infanta, the Archduke Albert sent 
a confidential agent, named Coomans, to England 
in the beginning of 1599, to discuss with Cecil the 
possibility of a peace being made. He was sent 
back with amiable though vague expressions of a 
desire to come to terms, if conditions could be 
arranged.^ It was known, however, that nothing 
really would be done until the Archduke had seen 
his new brother-in-law, Philip III., and a basis for 
future relations had been laid.^ It was Cecil's 
policy, whilst keeping even his own agents in the 
dark as to his desire for peace, to give out generally 
that Spain was seeking a modus vivendi; the object 
being partly to encourage the " moderate " section 
and the mercantile interests in England, and partly 
to render more pliable the King of France, whose 
naval activity and growing friendship with Spain 

^ Cecil to Sir Henry Neville, July 2 (Winwood Papers). 
2 The Archduke had gone to Spain to marry the Infanta, which he 
did in May, embarking at Barcelona for Italy on his return in June. 



368 TREASON AND PLOT 

were causing no little uneasiness to Elizabeth.^ It 
was important at the same time for Cecil and his 
friends not to appear desirous of peace, for fear of 
alienating the Puritan party in England, and the 
Dutch, who had undertaken to retain a strong fleet 
on the coast of Spain during the summer (1599) to 
prevent any attack upon England whilst the prin- 
cipal national forces were in Ireland. To keep the 
matter of peace alive, agents came with letters to 
the Queen and Cecil on the subject in June from 
the Archduke's locum tenens in Flanders, the Car- 
dinal Andrea ; but it was still policy for Cecil to 
hold back,^ for great things were then expected of 
Essex in Ireland, and the Dutch had promised to 
commit vast devastation on the shipping and ports 
of Spain, either of which events would have enabled 
better terms to be made for England. 

Suddenly, however, in July a change came over 
the appearance of affairs. The spies of Cecil had 
continued to report the great naval and military 
preparations in Spain and the vapouring of the 
revived militant party there ; but with the Dutch 

^ See correspondence in Winwood Papers, Part i, 

2 The answer sent by tlie Queen to Coomans' advances was thus 
reported by the Venetian ambassador in France to the Doge. " She 
declares that she is equally desirous of peace ; but that she cannot 
initiate nor conduct any negotiations, for she has no guarantee that 
the terms agreed upon would be maintained, as she is not dealing with 
a person of sufficient authority. She repeats what she said before, that 
whilst she was negotiating with the Duke of Parma, she found herself 
tricked, for the Spaniards attacked England with a powerful fleet 
(1588). But still she promises not to lose time, but to make inquiries 
as to the opinion of the States (Holland), and in this way she puts off 
the business, because she wishes to see whether Flanders is to be 
entirely separated from the Spanish crown (Venetian Calendar. Con- 
tarini to the Doge, April 25, 1599). 



ANOTHER SCARE IN ENGLAND 369 

fleet threatening the Spanish coast and the known 
disorganisation of the kingdom, it was concluded 
that the armaments were intended for defence alone; 
and so it happened that while Essex and the soldiers 
were on their weary and barren march through 
Munster the Queen's navy was mainly laid up in 
dock. This being the case, early in July Cecil 
received news that the Dutch fleet, bent mainly 
upon plunder, had sailed away to Madeira, leaving 
the Bay of Biscay and the Channel open for a 
Spanish fleet, and at the same time intelligence 
arrived that an agent of the King of Spain had gone 
to request the Governor of Brest to allow a Spanish 
fleet to anchor in his port. This news fell in London 
like a thunderbolt. Couriers were sent flying to 
France to beg the King not to shelter the enemy's 
vessels, and from end to end of England the country 
was aroused to its defence. " It was little expected," 
wrote Cecil to the English Ambassador in France, 
"that those who published so brave a purpose to 
interrupt all supplies for Spain, ^ and to keep the 
coast blocked up from trade, would now thus, fondly 
and mechanically, put all upon a journey to the 
islands for wines and sugars. Now that Spain is 
clear of them [i.e. the Dutch), and hath in readiness 
forces to have defended, he (the Adelantado) may in 
all probability convert some hitherward." ^ Cecil 

^ Vast quantities of corn and other provisions, &c., had been sent 
from France to Spain. Elizabeth had bound herself to respect the 
French flag, but she did not bargain for this, and bitter complaints 
were made by Neville to Henry IV., whilst an acrimonious dispute 
proceeded on the same subject with the French Ambassador in England 
(see Correspondence in Winwood Papers). 

2 Cecil to Neville, July 14, 1599 (Winwood Papers). 

2 A 



370 TREASON AND PLOT 

had full warrant for fearing this from the reports of 
his agents. One usually very well informed spy 
wrote to him (July 24) in the most alarming strain 
from Lisbon. The Adelantado, he assured him, was 
bound for England or Leland. He had just arrived 
in Lisbon with 35 ships from Andalusia, and after 
embarking in the Tagus Spanish and Portuguese 
troops to the number of 4000, was to proceed to 
Corunna. He had already 6000 soldiers on board 
his fleet, almost as many as his ships would carry, 
but (and this is a good instance of the complete 
want of organisation existing) the large number of 
German and Flemish vessels that had been seized 
some time before to carry the additional troops and 
stores had all bribed their way out and had escaped. 
Still his force was formidable, for there were 14 
galleys and other ships ready to sail — though short 
of artillery — at Corunna and Ferrol, and at least 
8 fine new galleons in the Biscay ports. In all, 
the spy reported that the fleet would consist of 
35 galleons, 22 galleys, 15 or 20 caravels, and 35 
other vessels, and the armed forces to land would 
reach 25,000 soldiers. 

This was the most formidable force that had been 
organised since the Armada, if it had been as effi- 
cient as was reported on paper ; and there was, for 
the first time since 1588, a momentary revival of the 
crusading spirit that had given Spain force in years 
gone by. '' They go forward with the old vanity of 
1588, making full account of victory, and never 
respecting to prevent that anything should happen 
to the contrary. Falmouth is spoken of, yet I think 
it is no place for conquest, unless he first put his 



INVASION RUMOURS 371 

men on land, and then, having fortified, go to Ire- 
land, and so transport some of Tyrone's people for 
their further strength ; but if they depend to trans- 
port the Irish into England, some ports of the Severn 
or Welsh coast will be pretended." ^ The writer, 
however, thinks they will first go to Ireland and 
land at Limerick, and he sounds a note of alarm 
that a diversion or conjoint attempt at invasion will 
be attempted from Flanders. Above all, he says, let 
the Queen look to herself, for her death is daily 
threatened, and if it can be efi^ected it is determined. 
Let the English ships, he prays, stand on the defen- 
sive, if they can do nothing else, "for the Spanish 
practices will go forward until they have either 
destroyed themselves or spoiled England." "All 
these mischievous intents began by English semi- 
narists and Irish bishops. Ferret out such fellows 
in England, for there be many of them there. The 
Spaniards have great hope of help from some great 
men there (i.e. in England), stirred up at their 
instigation." " The Adelantado is so stirred up 
against England that, though it be already late for 
the galleys to go out, it shall be a bad time of the 
year that he will refuse to go over, as by his last 
voyage you had had experience, if God had not pre- 
vented. If this summer he should be hindered, be 
assured of him betimes in the spring. Meanwhile 
all helps have been, and will be, sent to Tyrone, for 
upon his broken staff they hope to lay a great foun- 
dation to annoy, yea, to conquer England." ^ 

In Spain and Portugal the talk, of which this was 

1 Van Harnack to Cecil, July 24, 1 599 (State Papers, Domestic). 

2 Ibid. 



372 TREASON AND PLOT 

a faithful echo, ran that the Queen of England was 
dead, and that the King of Spain would, in his 
clemency, not capture the country for himself, but 
would take advantage of the confusion to establish 
an English Catholic of royal blood ; " but still," said 
Cecil's agent, '* the crown is their desire, and upon 
this cast of the die, he assured his master, the future 
of both countries depended." Almost solemnly he 
declares that this is Spain's last possible effort. 
"Here goeth the whole seal of Spain. Spoil this 
and wear the Spanish crown. Their sweet speeches, 
that they come not for conquest but to raise up the 
next heir that is Catholic to the English crown, are 
dangerous. Possibly some Jesuit persuasions have 
seduced the English Papists to believe it, but let 
them not be deceived, it is the English crown the 
Spaniards covet, and not religion or conscience. I 
fear there is some great personage already obtained 
unto that which the last Earl of Derby denied, 
though I accuse none, yet by their speeches it is a 
dangerous suspicion." ^ 

This fairly represented the inflated current ideas 
of the Spaniards and their English sympathisers 
under the hopeful influence of a new reign ; but 
those who held them had not the privilege, as we 
have, of raising the veil that covered the secret 
deliberations of Philip's councils, and of under- 
standing to the full the demoralisation, the corrup- 
tion, the ineptitude, and the penury that prevailed, 
notwithstanding the frenzy of presumption and pro- 
digality that had attended the King's first progress 
to meet his bride, under the auspices of his now 

^ Van Harnack to Cecil, July 25, 1599 (State Papers, Domestic). 



ENGLISH WAR PREPARATIONS 373 

all-powerful favourite, the Marquis of Denia (Duke 
of Lerma). The Adelantado might vapour on the 
quays of Lisbon or Ferrol, and Fuentes sneer at 
heretics in the council chamber, but the ships 
scattered in the various ports were mostly unpro- 
vided, unmanned, and unseaworthy. Where there 
were soldiers, arms and clothes were lacking ; stores 
rotted in one place whilst troops starved in another; 
no money could be obtained from Madrid except 
for wasteful shows and the endowment of monas- 
teries. Plague and famine were devastating the 
land, and Lisbon itself was a wilderness, for nearly 
the whole population had died or fled. 

But still, as Spaniards themselves did not under- 
stand how bad things were with them, it was 
not to be expected that Englishmen, whom they 
threatened, could discern the true state of affairs ; 
and the result of these alarmist reports, coming as 
they did when the Dutch fleet was far away, the Chan- 
nel undefended, the English army in Ireland, and 
the English navy in dock, was that an uncontrol- 
lable gust of panic swept over the country. John 
Chamberlain gives us a vivid picture of the state 
of affairs (August i, 1599, State Papers, Domestic): 
"Upon what ground or good intelligence I know 
not, but we are all here in a hurle, as though the 
enemie were at our doors. The Queene's shippes 
are all making ready, and this towne (London) is 
commanded to furnish out 16 of theire best shippes 
to defend the river, and 10,000 men ; whereof 
6000 to be trained presently, and every man els 
to have his arms ready. Letters are likewise going 
out to the bishops and their clergy, and all the 



374 TREASON AND PLOT 

noblemen and gentlemen hereabout, to prepare 
horses and all other furniture, as if the enemie 
were expected within fifteen days." A camp was 
to be held at Tilbury, as it was at the time of the 
Armada, the Lord Admiral Howard (Earl of Not- 
tingham) was appointed commander-in-chief, and 
his kinsman, Lord Thomas, commander of the 
navy; whilst Sir Francis Vere, who had charge of 
the English contingent in Holland, was to be re- 
called with his 2000 best men. "All this noise," 
continues Chamberlain, "riseth upon report that 
the Adelantado hath an Armada redy at Groine 
(Corunna), of 30 gallies and 70 shippes, some say 
more." On the 9th August the same letter- writer 
describes the progress of the scare. " The newes 
increasing daily of the Spaniards coming, and ad- 
vertisements concurring from all parts of their 
dessigne for London (whereof the Adelantado him- 
self gave out proud speaches), and the day of 
their departure from the Groyne being saide to be 
appointed, at the uttermost, as Sonday last, order was 
geven for a campe to be raised." All the generals 
are named ; and each county had to muster its 
men under the local gentry ready to march. Twelve 
of the Queen's ships were hastily put into com- 
mission under Lord Thomas Howard and Ralegh ; 
and the Earl of Cumberland undertook the defence 
of the river Thames by means of a bridge (of pon- 
toons), "after an apish imitation of that of Antwerp," 
a little above Gravesend. That, however, after 
much expense and trouble, had to be abandoned, 
as the Thames was found to be a different sort 
of river from the Scheldt ; and the bridge scheme 



ENGLISH WAR PREPARATIONS 375 

was substituted by one for sinking hulks in the 
fairway. 

" Upon Monday toward evening came newes (yet 
false) that the Spaniards were landed in the He 
of Wight, which bred such a feare and consterna- 
tion in this towne, as I wold litle have looked for ; 
with such a crie of women, chaining of streets, and 
shutting of the gates ; as though the enemie had 
been at Blackwall. I am sorry and ashamed, that 
this weakness and nakedness of ours, on all sides, 
shold show itself so apparently, as to be carried far 
and neere, to our disgrace, both with friend and 
foe." All the nobility had raised troops of horse ; 
and it is noticeable that the names given as having 
done so most liberally are mainly those opposed 
to Essex and the Puritans. The Lord Admiral, for 
instance, had raised a hundred horse ; Shrewsbury, 
Worcester, Northumberland, and Cecil the same ; and 
the Earl of Pembroke two hundred. As Chamber- 
Iain himself saw, there was something more be- 
hind this than mere patriotism. The vain babble 
in Spain about a great " personage having been 
gained," was interpreted by Essex's opponents as 
referring to him ; and this scare was no doubt made 
the most of by Cecil, as a counter-demonstration to 
the veiled threats of Essex, about the discontent of 
his army at the treatment meted out to him. 

'' But now," writes Chamberlain, " after all this 
noise and blustering, methinks the weather begins 
to cleere somewhat, for our preparations begin to 
slacke and not go on so hedlong as they did, and 
there may be hope that all should be well." On the 
23rd August he reports that the alarm is now " blown 



376 TREASON AND PLOT 

over," and says that even with so short a warning 
England has made a good show of defence. " Our 
navie has gone to sea prettilie strong and in goode 
plight for so short a warning, conteinning twenty- 
three shippes and pinnasses of the Quene's, twelve 
good marchant shippes provided by the citie and six 
more hired by her Majestie, with fourteen hoys well- 
furnished with ordnance and made for fight. Our 
land-forces are dayly discharged, litle by litle, and 
this day I thincke will be quite dissolved. . . . On 
Friday there mustered 1600 horse by St. James', and 
the next day 400 for the clergie in St. George's 
Tield, yet none of the noblemen have shewed their 
troupes. ... If occasion had been to draw forces 
to a head or into campe, it is thought the first pro- 
portion wold have risen to 27,000 foot and 3000 
horse. I assure you they were very well provided 
for the most part of horse armour and apparel, and 
wanted not their setting forth with feathers, skarfes, 
and other light ware. The Lord General (the Earl 
of Nottingham) with all the great officers of the field 
came in great bravery to Powles Cross on Sunday 
sevennight when the alarme was at the hottest and 
dined with my Lord Mayor. The vulgar sort can- 
not be persuaded but that there was some great 
misterie in the assembling of these forces, and 
because they cannot finde the reason of it, make 
many wilde conjectures and cast beyond the moone: 
as sometimes that the Queue was dangerously sicke; 
otherwhile it ivas to show to some that are absent 
that others can he followed as ivell as they, and that 
if occasion he, militarie services can he as well and as 
redily ordered and directed as if they ivere present " 



REAL REASON OF THE MUSTERS 377 

" And now," continues Chamberlain, " in the middest 
of all this hurle burle here is a sudden sound of 
peace, and that certain fellows are come from Brussels 
with a commission from Spaine."^ 

We shall probably be safe in adopting as our own 
the suggestion that the nobles of the "moderate" 
party took advantage of the scare to read to Essex a 
much-needed lesson that they could appeal success- 
fully to force as well as he : but whilst the prompt 
and efficient measures of defence adopted proved 
that Essex, idolised as he was in London, was ver};- 
far from being the potential dictator he imagined 
himself, it showed also to foe as well as friend that 
the organisation, the resources, and the energy of 
England were infinitely superior at an emergency to 
those of Spain. We have glanced at the several 
ostentatious and boasting attempts that had been 
made since the Armada to despatch a powerful fleet 
to coerce England. We have heard the exalted brag- 
ging of the Adelantado and the haughty assurances of 
invincibility proclaimed by high ecclesiastics and re- 
sponsible statesmen; but on each occasion humiliation 
and disaster had been the outcome of prodigious effort, 
and it is abundantly evident that no fleet complete 
and efficient with a formidable military force could be 
sent out promptly from Spanish ports because of the 
administrative dry-rot which the centralising policy 
of Philip IL had brought upon the country. 

What had happened before was repeated in 1599. 
Throughout the spring the most abject fear of an 
attack on the coast and shipping by an English fleet 
was prevalent in Spain, and false reports were fre- 

^ Chamberlain to Carleton, State Papers, Domestic, August 9, 1 599. 



378 TREASON AND PLOT 

quent of this or the other important place having 
been sacked. The new King was away on his 
wasteful journey in the east of Spain, and cool- 
headed observers were confident that, no matter 
what efforts were made, the country could not even 
defend herself, much less attack, that year,^ But, as 
we have seen, when Essex and most of the English 
forces were in Ireland and the Dutch fleet had 
relieved Spain of its threatening presence, the old 
vainglorious spirit prevailed again, and the talk of a 
great fleet to attack England or Ireland under the 
Adelantado was believed both by friend and foe. 
And yet, after three months of labour and boasting, 
the Adelantado's fleet, badly provided, ill armed, and 
poorly manned, could only endeavour fruitlessly to 
defend the Canaries from the depredations of the 
Dutch ; and by the time the unfortunate Adelantado 
reached the Azores (September 30), his fleet was 
crippled by bad weather and twenty-two out of his 

^ Eobert Bruce, who was a Spanish agent but sold to the English, 
reported to Colville on his way through France from Spain (July 1599), 
" Notwithstanding all their preparations and fleeing bruittis, he doth 
assure that this year the Spanyard shall be habill to do no thing in 
theis parts : his resons being the fearfuU plage which is aniang thame j 
the year being far spent, and neither the galees as yet cum to places 
appointed nor a bastant (i.e. sufficient) army listed." Bruce proceeds to 
report what we already know, that Lerm;i was strongly opposed to any 
attempt at the invasion or coercion of England being made during the 
Queen's life, whilst the Adelantado was violently in favour of an 
immediate conquest. Philip was understood to side with Lerma, as he 
did in all things (Colville Letters, Bannantyne Club). 

In the same month (July 6, 1 599) Thomas Phellips, the astute spy- 
master, now in disgrace, wrote a very clever letter to the same effect 
(State Papeis, Domestic). Philip III., he says, is spirited and eager, but 
he has no money to spend upon aggression at present. The A'lelantado 
and Fuentes are " Hotspurs," but nothing will be done until the King 
confers with the Archduke, who, the writer knows for certain, desires 
peace. 



THE ADELANTADO FAILS AGAIN 379 

eighty-five ships had foundered at sea/ He had 
failed to meet the India fleet ; he had failed to find 
the Dutch, and the four millions of gold ducats, 
wrung out of miserable Spain to pay for his fleet, 
were worse than wasted. As for help to the Irish 
Catholics, two small pinnaces with arms and money 
were sent to Loch Foyle, over the division of which 
Tyrone and O'Donnell quarrelled, but the oft-pro- 
mised army of conquest came not, and for another 
year at least the Protestants of England knew that 
they were safe from Spanish attack. 

In the meanwhile James of Scotland was striving 
incessantly to gain the sympathy of Catholics every- 
where. Now that he had humbled the Presbyterian 
clergy, whom he had hated heartily, and not without 
reason, for their arrogance and the republicanism 
that underlay their Church discipline, he carried his 
ostentatious approaches to Rome to an extent which 
appears almost imprudent. His eager reconciliation 
with the Catholic lords, his reappointment of Arch- 
bishop Beaton as his ambassador in France, and the 
violent anti-Puritan opinions he expressed in his 
book "Basilicon Doron," were enough, almost, to 
drive his Presbyterian subjects and the Puritans of 
England to despair. But apparently James weighed 
the chances well. If he could win over the English 
Episcopalians and moderate Catholics, who still 
formed the great bulk of the nation, he could 
afford to risk any displeasure, short of revolution, 
from his own Presbyterians and the English Puri- 
tans. Doubtless Essex and he quite understood 
each other, and had agreed to a similar line of 

^ Sorzano to the Doge, October 31, 1599 (Venetian Calendar). 



38o TREASON AND PLOT 

action, by which they might gain partisans from the 
other side, whilst holding their own adherents in 
hand by personal, party, and national sympathies. 

James, at all events, was determined to be pre- 
pared betimes, let who would be unready. In 
addition to the Archbishop of Glasgow, who was 
authorised to tell every one that his master was really 
a Catholic, Lord Hume was sent to Paris and to 
Italy to set forth James's claims to the English 
crown, and to beg for recognition (May 1 599). In 
response to the persistent touting of Scottish agents, 
the Pope also sent an embassy, consisting of the 
visionary young poet Constable (whom we last heard 
of as desirous of converting Elizabeth herself) and 
James Wood of Bonnington, to offer James 100,000 
crowns for preliminary expenses, and 2,000,000 more 
to maintain war with England, if he would decree 
liberty of conscience in his realm and declare war. 
The Pope also assured him the concurrence of all 
Catholic princes, and a further contribution of 
^20,000 from the English Catholics with 20,000 
English soldiers, immediately after war was com- 
menced. This was a tempting offer. The Arch- 
bishop of Glasgow fervently exhorted James to 
accept it, or, he said, " the Pope would know him 
no more, but would help some other competitor." -^ 
James was surrounded by Catholic influences. 
Jesuits, Capuchins, and Cordeliers were almost 
ostentatiously summoned to his court : the Papist 
Seatons, two of whom, at least, were Spanish 
officers, were his close friends ; and, above all, 
Henry of France had sent as special ambassador 

• Colville's Advertisements, August 18, 1599. 



JAMES COURTS THE CATHOLICS 381 

to him at the same time, that Maximilian de Eetune, 
who was afterwards famous as the Due de Sully. 
His ostensible errand was to renew the ancient 
alliance between France and Scotland ; but we are 
told by one who was present i'^ "Monsieur de 
Betune, thoch he pretend no errand bot from the 
King his master, to veseit the King of Scotland for 
entertaining the auld amitie betuix the two nations, 
yit he is as ernist to persuade the King to embrace 
the Pope's offres as Boniton or Constable is, and his 
persuasion shall prove of no small consequence," 
James could hardly resist such influences as these, and 
he sent Constable back to Bome {via Denmark) with 
an acceptance of the Pope's pregnant offer ; though 
whether he, James, ever intended to fulfil his part of 
the bargain is more than doubtful. His object was 
probably not war, but simply to frighten Elizabeth 
into acknowledging him as her heir. All this under- 
hand dealing of James, however, was duly conveyed 
to Cecil by his agents (August 1599), and doubtless 
was one of the reasons for the sudden and formid- 
able warlike preparations in England already referred 
to as having been made in that month. Elizabeth 
was highly indignant with Henry IV. for his dally- 
ing with James's intrigues, and demanded Betune's 
immediate recall. The French king had every reason 
for preferring the succession of James to that of a 
Spanish nominee, but he could not afford to quarrel 
with Elizabeth, so Betune was instructed to return 
through London, in order to assure the Queen of the 
harmlessness of his mission : but, withal, he failed 
to conciliate her, and the peace negotiations with the 

^ Robert Colville of Cleieli, the nephew of John Colville. 



382 TREASON AND PLOT 

Archduke's ageut \vore uow actively pursued by 
Cecil as a counterbalance to James's friendsbip with 
the Pope and Catholic Trance. 

But the King of Scots was determined to leave no 
element in Europe unconciliated. Whilst he was 
thus humbling himself at the feet of the Pontiff and 
coquetting with the King of Trance ; whilst he was 
surrounding himself with Scottish Catholics, promis- 
ing toleration, conciliating English moderates by his 
leanings to the Episcopacy, and holding the Eng- 
lish Puritans by means of Essex, he was endeavour- 
ing to prove to the new King of Spain that he was 
his most faithful servitor. The Englishmen who had 
advocated the domination of England by Spain had. 
for the most part, become discouraged by repeated 
failure. Their recommendations and prayers had 
been disregarded : the old King had died without 
forcing his beloved daughter on the English throne, 
and it was felt that the new King would have other 
objects of his own to serve. Many of the old refugees 
had died or had sought pardon : the Spanish pensions 
they had received were, for the most part, stopped, 
and destitution had thinned their ranks, so that now 
Sir William Stanley in Flanders, a few of the Jesuit 
priests, and such old pensioners as Colonel Semple, 
alone remained faithful to the idea that had in- 
spired the Armada. Even Father Creswell, disci- 
ple of Father Persons though he was, who repre- 
sented the English Catholics in the Spanish court, 
saw that the circumstances were radically changed. 
Thomas Fitzherbert, who had succeeded Sir Francis 
Englefield as Philip's English secretaiy, represented 
the general opinions of his* class in an able State 



JAMKS'S EMBASSY TO SPAIN, 1599 383 

paper/ reporting upon the King of Scots' emVjassy 
(Lord Sornplc) to Spain to ask for support of }iis 
claims to the English crown. In the previous pages 
of this book we have had occasion to see how such 
embassies from James had been treated in the past, 
and this instructive document of November 1599 
marks the change that had come not only over the 
spirit of the English partisans of Spain, but also over 
the whole situation in consequence of the death of 
Philip If. 

Fitzhcrl>ert discusses at length the possibility of 
Jarnes having sent the embassy to Spain, with or 
without Elizabeth's connivance, but with the only 
object of diverting the Spanish armaments against 
England, and he decides finally that the King of 
Scots is acting in good faith in asking for Spanish 
help to become King of England. This being pre- 
mised, Fitzherbert poses the question whet?ier it is 
desirable or not that Philip should give him such 
aid. " In my opinion it is not, if it can be avoided ; 
but that his Majesty should make King of England 
a Catholic whose zeal for our holy faith is more to 
be depended upon. It is certain that his Majesty 
(Philip) has the power to make a king of England 
and to exclude the Scotchman, if he will deign to 
take the course which we have so often begged him 
to adopt with regard to the Infanta, but always on 
condition that he does it before the Queen dies, and 
before the King of Scotland has won over the Eng- 
lish Catholics, as he is now endeavouring to do, and 
will in future do more than ever, thanks to the 

* Fitzherljert to Lerma, November 30, 1599 (British Mueeum, 
Add. MSS. 28,420, Spanish Calendar). 



384 TREASON AND PLOT 

delays on this side, together with his intrigues and 
show of fovour to the Catholics, whom he leads to 
suppose that he is in his heart a Catholic too. But 
if his Majesty will not, or cannot, execute the under- 
taking during the life of the Queen, I warn your 
Lordship that after her death will he too late, as the 
King of Scotland will attain his ohject before his 
Majesty has time to gather his forces and prevent 
it. It must be borne in mind that most of the Eng- 
lish nobles who do not pretend to the crown them- 
selves, and the claimants who have no means of 
enforcing their claims, will recognise the King of 
Scotland more readily than any of the competitors 
who are their equals . . . With regard to the Catho- 
lics, as it is certain that none of the other claimants 
(who are all malignant heretics), will grant them such 
favourable conditions as the King of Scotland, who 
is moderate and now professes to be a Catholic, they 
will certainly join his party as soon as he enters Eng- 
land. Seeing the strength of his claims, the forces 
he has ready, his facility for entering the country, the 
support of Dennnu'k, and even of the English them- 
selves, he will not only be stronger than any other 
claimant, but will carry through his design before 
bis Majesty's forces can arrive there. ... If, there- 
fore, his Majesty cannot, or will not, attack Eng- 
land during the life of the Queen, I see no way 
of stopping the King of Scotland from becoming 
monarch of both realms ; and I submit to your 
Lordship whether it would not be advisable for his 
Majesty to take the present opportunity of seeing 
if the King of Scotland will consent to be a Catholic. 
If he consent thereto, he might be aided to declare 



JAMES'S EMBASSY TO SPAIN 385 

war against the Queen of England, on his furnishing 
sufficient security to fulfil his engagements towards 
his Majesty, and to remain perpetually the ally and 
friend of the Spanish crown, to which, moreover, he 
will be bound by the ties of gratitude, and by the 
fact that he is Catholic King of England and Scot- 
land. In this case, the cause of the alienation of 
England from the old alliance with Spain, I mean 
heresy, will have disappeared ; whilst, at the same 
time, the reason for the close friendship between 
Scotland and France (that is to say, the constant 
quarrels between England and Scotland) will also 
be non-existent, and it will behove the King of 
England and Scotland, whoever he may be, to 
renew the old connection with Spain and the house 
of Burgundy. ... If aid were given to the King 
of Scots against the Queen of England, it would be 
effectual in frustrating the designs of the King of 
France against Spain and keep them fully occu- 
pied, without breaking the peace which his Majesty 
(Philip) has made with him." 

This, it will be perceived, is a counsel of despair, 
which it would have been impossible for men in 
Fitzherbert's position to have given to Philip 11. 
The recognition and promotion of James's designs 
on the crown of England, on his mere profession of 
Catholicism, would have represented a complete 
triumph for the " politicians " throughout Europe 
who had been working against Spain for that very 
end for fourteen years. It would have meant an 
abandonment of the dead Philip's and his father's 
life-dreams of the supremacy of Spanish Catholicism 
in the political interests of their house ; and though 

2 B 



386 TREASON AND PLOT 

Spain had fallen low, the ambitions of her rulers 
had survived their potency, material, monU, and 
mental. Spain was etlete, but she was still tradi- 
tionally powerful, and her pretensions matched her 
traditions rather than her circumstances. So com- 
plete a surrender as that suggested by Fitzherbert 
was, therefore, not yet probable, and this seems to 
have occurred to the writer himself, for he hastens 
to keep up the hollow old pretence that it only 
depended upon the mere word of Philip to place the 
Infauta on the throne of England. 

*• If, on the other hand," he says, " his Majesty- 
does not wish to aid the King of Scots to become 
King of England, but intends to undertake the 
enterprise in favour of the Infanta with the ne- 
cessary speed (which we, the English Catholics, 
earnestly desire and petition him to do), I still 
think that great advantage may be derived from 
these negotiations with the Scots, which can be 
continued or broken otf as occasion may require, 
and will serve to conceal his Majesty's other objects. 
These communications with the Scots, moreover, 
will arouse the suspicion of the Queen of England 
against the King of Scotland, and she will not 
trust him to help her when his Majesty (Philip) 
attacks England ; she may perhaps in the mean- 
while try to disturb Scotland . . . the effect of which 
might be to upset both countries to such an extent 
as to prevent the Queen from injuring Spain, as she 
usually does. His Majesty will thus hsh in troubled 
waters, to his own benefit and her disadvantage. In 
any case, the least benefit that will follow these 
nes^otiations is, that the Kins: of Scots will declare 



JAMI^:S'S EMBASSY TO SPAIN 387 

himself a Catholic, if in his heart he be one (which 
will be no small service to God and honour to 
his jVlajesty), or else we shall strip the mask with 
which he seeks to deceive the Pope and others, and 
shall thus alienate from him the P^nglish Catholics. 
Finally, if his Majesty desires peace with the Queen 
of Enj^land, it may be assumed that, in the present 
state of Irish affairs, she will be so apprehensive of 
the result of these nej^otiations, and the evil that 
may reach her through her backdoor (as she calls 
Scotland), as to a^ee the more readily to some fair 
settlement." 

Fitzherbert finally concludes that, in any case, 
the Scottish envoy should be publicly honoured in 
Madrid, and that a Spanis?i embassy should be sent 
in return to Scotland, " with a little ready money 
and moderate promises of pensions to win over 
Scottish Catholics," who may usefully serve Spanish 
interests, whatever these may be ; and that, above 
all, an effort should be made to persuade James to 
pardon and restore Bothwell, then a refugee in 
Flanders, existing on Philip s bounty. " He is one 
of the principal persons in Scotland, and a near 
relative of the King. He has a large party who 
follow him in everything, as is the custom of the 
country, and he and his adherents alone may be 
instrumental in effecting what I have said (i.e. 
rising against James if he broke his promise to the 
Catholics). He is naturally a turbulent man and 
greatly incensed against the King.^ Philip and 

* Francis Stuart, Earl of Bothwell, Lord Admiral of Scotland, was 
thfe natiira] grandson of Jarnes V. He made an unsuccessful attempt 
to Beize James at Falkland in 1592, and had to fly the countiy. He 



388 TREASON AND PLOT 

his Council were, for the reasons I have stated, not 
ready to accept Fitzherbert's first suggestion of 
helping James to the English crown, but they 
were willing to sow distrust between Elizabeth and 
the King of Scots by appearing to patronise the 
latter. 

So James's envoy, Lord Semple, was made much 
of, and sent away loaded with gold chains for him- 
self and fine messages for his master, whilst other 
emissaries from Spanish Flanders flattered James 
in the conviction that even Spain had been caught 
in his Catholic lure, and that the only remaining 
Catholic interest that he had to fear was now on 
his side.^ All the cards then seemed to be in his 



returned in the next year, and succeeded in his attempt, forcing James 
to dismiss his Chancellor Maitland, whoni he considered too Catholic. 
By a counter-movement Bothwell was forced to fly to England and 
was sheltered by Elizabeth, as up to that time he had been an ultra- 
Protestant. When, in order to revenge himself, he entered into a 
league with the Scottish Catholic Lords, he found it necessary to 
escape to Spanish Flanders. In 1596 he sought reconciliation with 
Elizabeth, as he was destitute in Paris, offering to become a spy in her 
interest upon Spain, France, or the Scottish Catholics (Danvers to 
Cecil, Hatfield Papers, vol. vi., June 28). He made other desperate 
efforts to recover the favour of Elizabeth in 1598 through John 
Colville, whose opinion of his character is curious : " Albeit in one 
of my former letters I did write as I thought of Bothwell, being moved 
thereto by his terrible oaths and protestations, yet finding him still as 
light as a feather and more f raudf ull nor a fox, I am forced to alter my 
opinion, car en son fait il n'y'a ny ryme ny raison" (Hatfield Papers, 
vol. viii. ; see also Colville's Letters and Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.). 
It may be added that the Spanish envoy was not sent to Scotland as 
suggested by Fitzherbert, but a man was sent from Flanders in the 
name of the Archduke. 

1 Edward Bruce, writing to Lord Henry Howard (Hatfield Papers, 
uncalendared, cxxxv. fol. 81), says : "My Lord Semple at his return 
from Spaine did acquent the King that thair was ane propos there to 
send ane ambassadour to this countrie, and that it was contentously 
much in dispute in thair Counsell jyro et contra. ... So tossing these 



JAMES GROWS BOLDER 389 

hand, and he could aiFord to assume a tone towards 
Elizabeth that a few years before he would not 
have dared to use. He suggested to his principal 
nobles that they should form a " Band," ostensibly 
for the protection of his person, but really to enforce 
his claims to the English crown ; ^ and whilst he was 
dabbling in conspiracy with Essex and Montjoy — as 
will presently be related — for the traitorous use of 
English troops, he demanded of the Scottish Parlia- 
ment a liberal subsidy with the same object, for 
"he was not certain how soon he should have to 
use arms ; but whenever it should be, he knew his 
right, and would venture crown and all for it." ^ 

Thus, at the opening of the year 1600, the clouds 
lowered darkly over England and Protestantism. 
Essex, a prisoner, was raging and plotting, mad 
with spite and disappointment, ready to sacrifice 
loyalty, country, faith — everything, for rehabilita- 
tion and revenge : Tyrone, rejoicing in his hollow 
truce, was busy preparing for the great struggle, 
whilst his zealous agents in Spain were whispering 
to Philip's Ministers that this indeed was the 
opportunity for repairing all past failures, and for 
finally making England Catholic through Ireland. 

doubts to and fro they break up tbair Counsell without any resolution. 
. , . Since this time the King protests that naither nor indirectly he 
never heard motion or speach of any such messenger to come unto 
him." This was true, but a Flemish envoy was sent by the Archduke 
and his wife. 

1 In a letter from Cecil to his agent in Scotland, Nicholson (April 
1600), he quotes James as expressing himself thus in the instrument 
forming the new " Band " : " Divers persons upon frivolous and im- 
pertinent presumptions would go about to impugn his birthright, 
contrary to the most ancient and approved laws of both realms" 
(Hatfield Papers, uncalendared, vol. Ixxviii.). 

2 Nicholson to Cecil, December 15, 1599 (Scottish State Papers). 



390 TREASON AND PLOT 

James almost for the only time in his life was 
warlike, with, as he thought, all Catholic Europe 
behind him, and the English Puritans betrayed by 
their leader ; and the moderate Cecil party were face 
to face with the fact that they had been outflanked 
and outbidden by the King of Scots. The religion 
of England, which meant the fate of civilisation, 
was trembling in the balance. There seemed only 
one possible way by which the Anglican Church 
might be saved and civil war avoided, and that way 
was only possible for one man. The man was Sir 
Robert Cecil, and the way, a crooked and devious 
one, came out straight in the end, as will be seen in 
the following chapters. 



CHAPTER XII 

Essex in disgrace — His attempts at reconciliation — Small Spanish help 
to the Irish rebels — The mission of Mateo de Oviedo, Archbishop 
of Dublin, and Martin de la Cerda to Ireland — Eesolution in 
Spain to aid Tyrone actively — Irish envoys to Spain — Helplessness 
of Philip and discouragement of Tyrone — Father Persons' appeals 
to Philip to take a decided course on the English succession — 
Discussions in the Council of State on the subject — Father Cres- 
well's efforts in Madrid — The projects of the Earl of Bothwell — 
Essex and James. Abortive peace negotiations with Spain — Essex's 
rebellion and execution, 

"What! did the fool briDg you too? Go back to 
your business." This was the greeting flung by the 
Queen to her trembling poet-godson, Sir John Har- 
rington, as he entered her chamber to pay his 
respects on his return to England with Essex ; one of 
a host of idle knights, captains, and swaggerers, who 
scorned to stay in Ireland longer than their lord. 
And when Harrington knelt to his sovereign, as 
she paced up and down the room in a fury, she 
grabbed his girdle and cried to him, " By God's Son! 
I am no Queen : that man is above me. Who 
gave him command to come here so soon ? I sent 
him on other business." Then, becoming some- 
what calmer, she told Harrington to bring for her 
inspection the diary she knew he had been keeping 
of the Munster campaign. It was never meant for 
her eyes, but her godson dared not refuse ; and as 
she read the record she flared out in anger again, 
and swore her awful oath, "that we were all idle 



392 TREASON AND PLOT 

knaves, and the Lord - Deputy (Essex) worse, for 
wasting our time and her commands in suchwise 
as my journal doth write of." ^ In the meanwhile 
the object of all this anger was sick and sorry at 
York House in the custody of Lord-Keeper Egerton. 
Debarred from access to the Queen, and refused 
permission even to write to his wife, who had just 
given birth to a daughter, he could only profess 
abject submission in heart-breaking appeals to the 
sovereign whose former kindness to him had turned 
to bitter resentment. 

The sternness of Elizabeth and her Council 
against Essex at this juncture is less surprising to 
us than it was to most of their contemporaries.^ 
We know, as they did not, that the English 
Government were fully informed of the coquetting 
of James with the Pope, the Catholics, and with 
Tyrone, and had more than a suspicion that Essex 
had been in treasonable communication with both.'' 

^ Harrington's Nugce Antiquce. 

2 Chamberlain's letters from Court at the period reflect the bewilder- 
ment generally felt at the Queen's implacability against Essex. Writing 
on the 22nd February 1600 to Carle ton he says : "You left us here 
with so fair weather and with so confident an opinion that all sholde go 
well with my Lord of Essex, and that we should soon !?ee him a-cock- 
horse again, that I know it wilbe strange news to you to hear that all 
was but a kind of dreame and a false paradise that his friends had 
fained to themselves." Again on the 5 th March he speaks of Essex as 
being very ill, and " a man quite out of his mind." " The Bishop of 
Worcester preached at Court on Sunday last, made many proffers 
and glances in his behalf as was understood by the whole auditorie 
and by the Queene herself, who presently calling him to reckoning, 
he flatly foreswore that he had any such meaning." 

^ This idea was encouraged by Tyrone's constantly expressed par- 
tiality for Essex, which greatly angered the Queen. Tyrone, amongst 
other things, said that he would never draw the sword against Essex, 
whereupon the Queen wrote to Fenton (November 5, Irish State 
Papers) : " That Tyrone should forbear to draw his sword against our 



DISGRACE OF ESSEX 393 

They did not yet know the extent to which his 
disloyalty had reached : that was to come out in 
the helter-skelter rush to confess first and most 
fully which overtook Essex and his friends when 
their plot had failed a year later. Then it was to 
come out that Essex had suggested to his father-in- 
law, Sir Christopher Blount, and his friend the Earl 
of Southampton, whilst he was yet in Ireland, to 
bring over 4000 of the Queen's troops to England 
without authority, "with the full purpose to right 
himself by force of such wrongs as he complained of 
receiving here (in England) in his absence," ^ which, 
says Blount, both he and Southampton opposed. 

Essex had many friends and was greatly beloved 
by the populace. It was hardly likely that his harsh 
treatment and present suffering on what appeared 
publicly to be inadequate grounds should not pro- 
voke some attempt at remedy. The Queen was so 
jealous of any one having access to him, that most 
of his relatives retired to the country, to remove 
themselves from suspicion, and even " his servants 
dared not meet or make merry lest it might be taken 
ill." But still projects were not wanting for his 
rescue. Old Sir Christopher Blount, who had ad- 
vised him when he left Ireland to bring a sufficient 
number of adherents with him to prevent his arrest 
by force, was now for seizing him out of custody 
and carrying him into Wales, guarded by a squadron 
of cavalry ; but this was too bold and risky a course ; 

Lieutenant rather than against us, we shall take ourselves much 
dishonoured, and neither value anything that shall proceed from him 
on such conditions, nor dispose our ■ minds to be so gracious to him 
hereafter." 

^ Confession of Sir C. Blount, Hatfield Papers, Ixxxiii. 



394 TREASON AND PLOT 

for the Queen was in no humour to be trifled with, 
and a more secret but no less dangerous course was 
adopted, A few days after Essex's arrival, Lord Mont- 
joy, who was deeply in love with the Earl's sister, 
came to Essex House, where the ruined gambler, 
Earl of Southampton, had rooms, and told him that 
even before Essex had returned from Ireland he had 
seen that his disgrace was impending, '* and desiring 
to save him, if it mought bee, he (Montjoy) had sent 
a messenger to the King of Skottes to wish him to 
bethincke himselfe, and not suffer, if he could hinder 
it, the government of this State to be wholly in the 
handes of his enemies ; and if hee (James) would 
resolve of anything that was fitt, he should find him 
(Montjoy) forward to do him right, as far as he 
mought with a safe conscience and his duty reserved 
to her Majestic." ^ James sent a prompt but timid 
verbal answer to the effect that "he would think of 
it, and put himself in readiness to take any good 
occasion." This, however, was not sufficient for 
Montjoy, who thereupon sent a bolder suggestion 
to him. He was destined, he said, to go to Ireland 
as Lord-Deputy, and when he was there he would 
at convenient time declare himself and place the 
English army at James's disposal. With half the 
troops he would have, he said, he might " doe that 
which was fitt in establishing such a course as should 
be best for our country." This proposal was backed 
by a letter from Southampton to James offering his 
services on his behalf. After some delay, the King 

^ Confession of the Earl of Southampton, Hatfield (uncalenclared), 
Ixxxiv. (Printed as an Appendix to the Letters of Cecil and James, 
Camden Society.) 



TREASON AT WORK 395 

of Scots signified that " hee lyked the course well, 
and would prepare himself for it ; " but it is very 
evident that James was lukewarm. The encourage- 
ment and money he was getting from the Catholic 
Powers and his warlike talk were intended by him 
as a means of forcing Elizabeth to acknowledge his 
heirship ; he had no real intention of precipitating 
events by commencing war, and certainly not to 
participate in a treasonable rising in England, which 
must necessarily turn a large number of his future 
subjects against him for the sole benefit of Essex. 
The friends of the latter gradually understood this, 
and dropped James for the present out of their 
plans. Sir Charles Danvers thought that the Eng- 
lish army in Ireland under Montjoy would be suffi- 
cient of itself to force Essex upon the Queen and 
destroy the Cecil party. Essex himself, now a 
prisoner in his own house, ^ approved of this idea, 
and Southampton was sent to Ireland to propose 
the matter to Montjoy. But responsibility had 
sobered the new Viceroy, and "hee utterly rejected 
it as a thinge which hee could no way thiuke honest, 
and dissuaded me (Southampton) from thinking any 
more of such courses." 

All this, although perhaps suspected by Cecil, 
was unknown to the Queen at the time, and in pity 
for her late favourite's despairing state and dangerous 
illness, on more than one occasion she seemed in- 
clined to relent towards him. Once, indeed, when a 
consultation of physicians had pronounced him to 
be dying she had sent him a message of comfort, 

1 He had been transferred thither from York House on the 19th 
March 1600. 



396 TREASON AND PLOT 

saying, with tears in her eyes, that if it were con- 
sistent with her honour she would visit him. But 
the mood soon changed. She wished to correct, not 
to destroy, she told Francis Bacon ; but it needed 
all the reasoning of the jurists and the abject prayers 
of the prisoner to dissuade her from submitting 
Essex to the tender mercies of the Star Chamber. 
At length a commission of the Privy Council was 
appointed to inquire into his conduct and to hear 
his defence, with power not to sentence, but to cen- 
sure. As usual, the Crown lawyers, amongst whom, 
to his eternal shame, was Francis Bacon, were viru- 
lent and grossly unfair in their attacks upon the 
accused, whilst Essex, pathetically eloquent, broken 
in health and heart, drew tears from eyes more 
accustomed to frowns by his pleading ; the result 
of the inquiry being the suspension of the Earl from 
all his offices, and his remaining under arrest during 
the Queen's pleasure.^ Cecil through all this was 
prudently moderate ; it was clear that Essex's temper 
would ruin him without much aid from his oppo- 
nents, and though Ralegh vindictively urged seve- 
rity,^ the Earl was liberated at the end of August, 

1 The trial or inquiry took place early in June. Bacon's account of 
the proceedings will be found in his works (Montagu). 

2 This famous letter from Ralegh to Cecil, which has so often been 
misinterpreted to mean the writer's desire for Essex's execution after 
his rising, bears no date ; but the context shows it to have been written 
at the period now mentioned. " If yow take it for a good councell to 
relent towards this tirant, yow will repent it when it shal be too late. 
His mallice is fixt, and will not evaporate towards any your mild 
courses. For he will ascribe the alteration to her Majestie's pusillani- 
mitye, and not to your good nature, knowing that yow worke but 
uppon her humour, and not out of any love towards him. The less 
yow make hyme the less he shalbe able to harme yow and yours. If 
her Majestie's favour fail hyme, he will again decline to a common 



IRELAND STILL IN REVOLT 397 

but was still forbidden to appear at court. He 
professed a desire to retire from public life and live 
away from London ; but it is highly probable that 
at this juncture he made his way unbidden into the 
Queen's presence at Greenwich, trusting to his old 
fascination to regain her love/ If so, he was de- 
ceived, for she thrust him from her presence with 
scorn and resentment, and thenceforward his heart 
had no room for other feeling but hatred for her and 
those who he thought had stolen her love from him. 
All his hope of regaining his mistress's favour was 
abandoned, and " his speeches," as Harrington said 
after an interview with him, " of the Queen become 
no man who hath mens sana in corpore sanoT 

No sooner had Essex fled from Ireland than 
Tyrone began to haggle about the terms and re- 
newal of the truce. He would have nothing to do, 
he said, with any Minister of the Queen but Essex ; 
he must, he declared, consult O'Donnell, who dis- 
approved of peace altogether, and he must include 
the other rebels in the truce ; but finally a renewal 
of six weeks was agreed to. Truce or no truce, 
however, Leinster was being ravaged still, and 
Munster, outside of the garrisons and Lord Barry's 
lands, was in open rebellion. The great territorial 
Munster chiefs, Florence M'Carty More and the 
Earl of Desmond (James FitzThomas Fitzgerald), 

person. For after revenges, fear them not," (See Edwards' " Life and 
Letters of Ealeigh," and " Sir Walter Ealeigh," by the present writer.) 
1 See Devereux's " Lives of the Devereux Earls of Essex." The 
evidence as to Essex having seen the Queen at this time is slight. It 
depends mainly upon a remark contained in a letter subsequently 
written by the Earl to Elizabeth, to the effect that she had by her 
voice commanded, and by her hands thrust him out of her presence. 



398 TREASON AND PLOT 

were re-established by Tyrone ; and Connaught 
since Sir Conyers Clifford's defeat and death was 
at O'Donnell's obedience. Thus Tyrone could afford 
to speak haughtily to the Queen's commander, the 
Earl of Ormonde. The terms of the truce, he com- 
plained, were being violated by the English, and he 
threatened that, after a fortnight longer, " I will, for 
God and my country, do the best I may against 
enemies and tyrants." "I wish you to command 
your secretary to be more discreet," wrote the Irish 
chief to Ormonde, " and to use the word ' traitor ' 
as seldom as he may. By chiding there is little 
gotten at my hands." ^ 

All this made it obvious that further parley would 
end in no good. " To use her name to so odious a 
traitor," ordered the Queen, " no more than to cast 
pearls before swine," and Lord Montjoy was in- 
structed to make ready in England to crush Irish 
rebellion once for all, cost what it might. Garrisons 
were to be established everywhere throughout Ire- 
land and no further truce or quarter was to be given 
to Tyrone.^ An army of 12,000 foot and 1400 horse 
were to be at the new viceroy's disposal, and the 

^ Tyrone to Ormonde, October 30, 1599, Irisli State Papers. 

2 Althougli Cecil was even blasphemously indignant — on paper — at 
Tyrone's assertion at this period that the Government had plotted to 
have him murdered, there is now no room to doubt that such was the 
case. The Irish State Papers disclose that at various times Lord Borough, 
Sir Geoflfry Fenton, the Earl of Ormonde, Sir Robert Cecil, and the 
Queen herself countenanced the assassination of Tyrone, and Ralegh goes 
so far as to defend the goodness of such a course in a letter to Cecil 
(October 1 598). The Carew Papers and " Pacata Hibernia " also 
prove that murder was a regular instrument of English policy in Ireland, 
and Sir George Carew quite coolly mentions to Montjoy the despatch of 
a man to Spain to kill O'Donnell, who had fled thither (Carew MSS., 
October 1602). 



MUNSTER IN REBELLION 399 

blow, it was agreed, must be struck at the rebel 
before the Spaniards could come to his aid in force. 
It was felt even in England now that the nerve- 
lessness hitherto shown in the dealings with Tyrone 
could not fail to encourage the new King of Spain 
to send the powerful aid for which Irish churchmen 
and chiefs had been praying so long and so earnestly. 
The adhesion of Munster especially to the rebellion 
was seen to be the great peril in this connection. It 
was perhaps the most fervently Catholic part of 
Ireland ; its splendid harbours were the easiest of 
access from Spain, and the re-erection of its native 
southern princes, M'Carthy More and Desmond, had 
given a temporary appearance of national solidity to the 
Irish cause. For this reason Tyrone himself attached 
the greatest importance to fomenting the rebel cause 
in Munster, which became in consequence the prin- 
cipal battle-ground upon which finally the cause of 
Catholic supremacy in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land was to be fought out to the bitter end. 

The Geraldines in exile and the crowd of Irish 
priests in Spain continued to beg fervently for aid to 
their cause. Soon after he had arranged the truce 
with Essex, Tyrone had sent yet two more emissaries 
to plead his cause with young Philip ; and hopeful 
messages and promises were again sent back to 
Ireland and made the most of by the ardent Celts 
who carried them. But still the habit of long de- 
liberation weighed heavily upon the Spaniard, and 
old Philip's love for infinite information dwelt in the 
statesmen who had sat at his feet. So, instead of a 
powerful fleet for which the Irish looked, there 
sailed into the bay of Donegal in April 1600 a ship 



400 TREASON AND PLOT 

carrying some presents of money and munitions and 
a Spanish friar, Mateo de Oviedo, whom the Pope 
had appointed Archbishop of Dublin, and with him 
came an experienced soldier. Captain Martin de la 
Cerda, to inspect and report to the King upon the 
military position of Tyrone. The new Bishop was 
delighted with his foreign flock. Writing to his 
King from Donegal (April 24) he assured him that he 
had in Ireland "the bravest and most faithful vassals 
that any king could have, such indeed, that if they 
were not already devoted to Spain it would be neces- 
sary to obtain their adhesion by all possible means." 
The meeting of chiefs in the monastery of Donegal 
was less optimistic now than when Captain Cobos had 
gone thither four years before. " When we arrived 
empty-handed only to repeat again the old pro- 
mises, they were overcome with sorrow and dis- 
may, . . . Although O'Neil and O'Donnell are full 
of courage they cannot prevail over the other chiefs, 
who fear the long delay in the arrival of succour, 
and suspect that they are being played with. We 
have done our best to stiffen them by every possible 
argument . . . and again promised that help should 
be sent with all speed. This has tranquillised them 
somewhat, and they have promised to wait for five 
months, as they think that they cannot, in any case, 
hold out longer than that without help, at least in 
money to pay their men. They have done great 
things last summer, O'Neil having overrun all 
Munster and submitted it to your Majesty, whilst 
O'Donnell has subjected Connaught." Tyrone, the 
Archbishop informed Philip, had almost gained over 
the Earl of Essex, and had recently refused the sur- 



SPAIN AND THE IRISH REBELS 401 

render of Cork, as he could not hold the city without 
the Spaniards. "These sixty gentlemen," he con- 
tinues, " met in this Monastery of Donegal and 
discussed matters, not like savages, but like prudent 
men. They received the chains and your Majesty's 
portraits v^^ith great ceremony, saying that they 
would wear no other chains nor bonds than those 
of your Majesty. They are very grateful for the 
arms, munitions, &c., and I, for my own part, 
humbly supplicate your Majesty to bear in mind 
the importance of this business. With 6000 men 
you may carry through an enterprise which will 
bridle English insolence in Flanders and secure 
Spain and the Indies from future molestation." ^ 

Whilst the Archbishop remained at Donegal as 
Philip's representative, Don Martin de la Cerda hur- 
ried back to Spain, equally impressed with the great 
results that might now be obtained by the sending of 
timely assistance to Tyrone. With him he carried 
fervent letters from the Irish chieftains to the 
Spanish king. That signed jointly by Tyrone and 
O'Donnell is the most important. They were, they 
said, in the last extremity. Their estates, men, and 
resources were exhausted ; and as the Spanish aid is 
delayed from day to day, after so many messengers 
and letters have been sent, they are sure that all 
spirits must fail, and they will have to give way, 
unless the Spanish succour reaches them this year 
(■i.e. 1600). Without it, all is lost. Don Martin de 
la Cerda takes a schedule of their requests, and of 
the money needful, if the army cannot possibly come 
this year. They have placed the chains and portraits 

1 Simancas (Spanish. Calendar, vol. iv.). 

2 C 



402 TREASON AND PLOT 

round their necks in token of Philip's favour, and 
they fervently pray him not to forsake them and the 
Catholic cause. "God knows, if it had not been for 
the service of God and Spain, they would not have 
undertaken the war at all, as they might have lived 
in peace." ^ Above all, they beg that Maurice Geral- 
dine, heir of Desmond, now in prison in Lisbon for 
participation in a riot there, should be released and 
be sent to Ireland with the Spanish expedition, as 
well as all the Irish bishops and men of rank in Spain 
and Flanders. As a further pledge of Tyrone's 
faithfulness to Philip, he sent with La Cerda Henry 
O'Neil, his son, to be educated in the Spanish 
court.^ 

A few days before these reports arrived in Spain, 
Philip's Council had exhaustively considered the 
question of Ireland, in consequence of a letter sent 
from Flanders by the Archduke Albert on the sub- 
ject. Tyrone, apparently in despair of getting a 
prompt decision from Spain, had appealed to the 
Archduke in March. The Irish, he assured him, 
had sustained the war, and had routed the English, 
in the confident expectation that the long-promised 

^ Simancas ( Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.). 

2 The Archbishop of Santiago wrote to Philip III. (May i8, 1600), 
saying that, in accordance with the King's order that he was to welcome 
and assist any person sent from Ireland by the Spanish Archbishop of 
Dublin, he had received at Santiago young O'Neil and his attendants, 
"welcoming them spiritually by confession, absolution, and the Mass, 
in which they showed themselves truly Catholic ; and he had enter- 
tained them bodily to the best of his ability." The King, he says, is 
doing a truly jjious work in supporting the Irish Catholics. In June 
young O'Neil was brought to Madrid with much distinction. John 
O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, the other son of the great Hu<^h, fell at the 
storming of Barcelona in 1641. He commanded the Irish regiment in 
the service of Philip IV. 



SPANISH AID TO BE SENT 403 

aid from Spain would be sent to them, but as 
nothing came, they fervently begged the Archduke 
to intercede for them. But the new sovereign of 
Flanders was at that moment in close negotiations 
with the English Government for peace, as will be 
related presently ; his hands were full of his own 
affairs, and he had no desire to be involved in the 
old Spanish ambitions ; so he simply passed on 
Tyrone's letter to Spain, as a matter that concerned 
him not. 

The Council of State, on this occasion, sent a 
report to the King of a somewhat more practical 
character than the canting platitudes which they had 
usually presented to his father. They deplored that 
all the efforts to aid the Irish had ended in disaster, 
and that the Catholics were in a more desperate 
plight than ever ; " but as past failures have not 
occurred through want of will, and our Lord always 
helps in the direst need, we must trust to His mercy 
in this case to infuse fresh spirit into them, whilst 
your Majesty aids them as far as you can, pending 
the possibility of undertaking the matter in force. 
Your Majesty will greatly serve God and your own 
interest by doing so, as in no place can the Queen 
of England be so effectually and cheaply embar- 
rassed as in Ireland. It will also enable us to im- 
prove our conditions of peace and encourage the Eng- 
lish Catholics. It is therefore recommended that at 
least 20,000 ducats and 4000 quintals of biscuit^ 
should be forwarded to Corunna, to be sent, with 
some arms and munitions, to Ireland by quick-sailing 
ships, so that the Irish may see that we are helping 

^ A -juintal is loo lbs. 



404 TREASON AND PLOT 

them with the things they most want, without delay. 
They should be written to kindly, and assured 
that, in any case, your Majesty will continue to pro- 
tect them, and when God wills, that a full force may 
be sent to liberate them." ^ 

It will be noted that as the Spaniards became 
more practical they became more modest. Past 
failures, after all, had taught them something ; and 
the 20,000 ducats and two cargoes of biscuits 
show up but poorly by the side of the pretentious 
promises of the past. When, however, La Cerda 
came back in May with his report and fresh letters 
from Tyrone and O'Donnell, the whole matter had 
to be reconsidered, for the exhortation of the Spanish 
Ai'chbishop of Dublin, and the imposing array of 
sixty Irish chieftains in the Monastery of Donegal 
protesting their loyalty to Spain, impressed Philip 
and his advisers with the reality of the opportunity. 
Don Martin told the King that the five havens in 
the hands of the rebels would receive the whole 
fleet in safety, and that the food necessary for the 
5000 or 6000 Spanish soldiers expected existed 
already in the island. Horses they had, he said, in 
plenty, though no carts or traces ; and if the Spanish 
expedition came promptly, Tyrone could raise a well- 
equipped army of 20,000 foot and 1000 horse. 
The enthusiastic opinion of La Cerda evidently pro- 
duced great effect upon the Council, and the latter 
warmly recommended to the King that the Irish 
Catholics should be supported, " so that the Queen 
should be served as she serves his Majesty by help- 
ing the Flemish rebels." 

^ Simancas (Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.). 



PHILIP III. TO THE RESCUE 405 

But alas ! then comes the characteristic Spanish 
touch, which shows us that the administration, at all 
events, had not changed for the better under the new 
King, Two months had already passed since it was 
decided to send immediately the 20,000 ducats and 
the biscuits, which, it was again stated, was all that 
could possibly be afforded (July i , 1 600) ; but the 
Council, after this interval, had to pray that " the 
Marquis of Poza should be instructed to provide the 
necessary funds without delay, because, although his 
Majesty has given orders, and application has been 
made to the Marquis, he has not delivered the 
money, saying that his Majesty has given him no 
orders." ^ When young Philip had before him this 
opinion of his Council again urging him to send, at 
least, the small aid decided upon without delay, he 
scrawled across it an order, which of itself proves hib 
youth and ignorance of affairs, as well as the wide 
gulf which in character separated him from his 
father. His Council had told him that the utmost 
that could be done for the Irish at present was to 
send them the temporary assistance mentioned, but 
he astounded them by ordering peremptorily that a 
powerful army and fleet should be sent at once to 
conquer Ireland. Idiaquez, the King's secretary, 
explained the reasons for Philip's decision, and the 
Council of State consisted of courtiers too submis- 
sive openly to dispute his wisdom. They had no 
doubt, they replied, that the enterprise would be 
quite easy and safe, and " your Majesty would gain 
enormously in prestige by conquering a kingdom 
thus unexpectedly. The bridle which the possession 

1 Simancas (Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.). 



4o6 TREASON AND PLOT 

of Ireland by your Majesty would put upon England 
and the Northern Powers, would enable you to divert 
them from all other points of attack, and prevent 
them from molesting Spain, &c. It would also en- 
able you to make good terms of peace and recover 
the Flemish fortresses held by the English for the 
rebels. In case of the Queen's death, your Majesty, 
as master of Ireland, would be in a greatly improved 
position to nominate a successor to the English 
crown." But — although they applauded the King's 
decision as the quintessence of wisdom and godliness, 
they humbly pointed out that there was no money 
and no time to send an expedition to Ireland that 
year ; and finally they repeated their former advice, 
to send only the ducats and the biscuits, whilst 
making preparation for an Armada of conquest in 
the following year (1601). 

Philip was young, ardent, and unwise, and would 
not be gainsaid. Again he returned the Council's 
report, ordering them to discuss and decide upon 
the means for sending out at once the Armada 
of conquest upon which he had set his heart. 
His decision, the Council again assured him, was 
" worthy of his grandeur and catholicity ; " but 
again, they pointed out the impossibility of carrying 
it into effect. The fitting out of the fleet, the 
raising and training the men, the supply of the arms 
and stores, and the provision of at least 150,000 
ducats to pay the troops during the campaign, 
would all have to be done in six weeks ; because, to 
send an expedition later than the middle of Septem- 
ber, would be to risk losing it altogether. Besides, 
they pleaded, where was the money for it all to 



PHILIP III. IN A HURRY 407 

come from ? No effort should be spared to obey 
his Majesty's orders ; and the Adelantado should be 
requested at once to send a report of all that would 
be needed and the money it would cost. Troops 
should be warned for service, and every man and 
weapon that could be drawn from Spain, Italy, or 
the Islands should be utilised for Ireland. Still the 
Council were doubtful, and could only promise to 
do their best. Philip's autograph note in reply to 
this is so characteristic that it deserves to be repro- 
duced entire, as I transcribed it myself at Simancas : 
" As the expedition is so entirely for the glory of 
Almighty God, all difficulties to it must be over- 
come somehow. The greatest energy and diligence 
must be exercised on all hands. I will find money 
for it, even if I have to sacrifice what I need for my 
own person, so that the expedition may go this yedr. 
Settle everything without delay. Get statements 
of all that will be needed, and forward them im- 
mediately to me. Do not wait to send to the 
Adelantado. I will give orders for the immediate 
collection of the money sufficient to send a force 
of 6000 men. In the meanwhile, send to Ireland 
instantly Don Martin de la Cerda, with the 20,000 
ducats and the 4000 quintals of biscuits." Such 
hastiness and disregard for "information" were 
enough to make Philip II. turn in his porphyry 
tomb ; but old Philip's system was stronger than 
young Philip's despotism, and nothing was done. 

These deliberations of the King and Council had 
delayed matters to the end of August, and three 
months later (23rd November 1600), the Council of 
State were asked to report upon fresh letters from 



4o8 TREASON AND PLOT 

Tyrone and O'Donnell, which had just been brought 
to Spain by Richard Owen.^ In the course of their 
report, to which reference will be made presently, 
the Council say that great efforts had been made to 
complete the expedition which had been ordered 
by the King. "But your Majesty's absence has 
so delayed matters that the vessels and galleys in 
Andalusia are still very much behind-hand. Of the 
sixteen needed, only eight have been fitted out, and 
the raising of the sailors has not even begun." They 
pray the King to insist upon greater speed being 
used, and that the rest of the ships should be got 
ready at once, as well as the necessary provisions. 
" Out of the 30,000 quintals of biscuit expected, 
only 12,000 have yet arrived in Lisbon, of which 
it was decided to send 4000 quintals to Ireland." 
Thus, as we see, whilst Tyrone was at close grip 
with Montjoy in Ireland, the administrative para- 
lysis of Philip's system was preventing the de- 
spatch of the precious aid which might have turned 
the scale in his favour. Councils might recommend, 
kings might command, realms might go a-begging ; 
but corruption, poverty, sloth, and bigotry reigned 
supreme over all. 

Tyrone's demands now brought by Richard Owen 
were more important and far-reaching than any 
that he had sent previously. Prince O'Neil, as 

^ Ricliard Owen was an Irishman who for years had been in the 
pay of Spain, and was formerly in Sir William Stanley's Irish traitor- 
regiment. He had accompanied Tyrone in the latter's famous interview 
with Essex ; and after Essex had returned to London the latter tried to 
excuse Tyrone's sulkiness towards other English oflicers by saying that 
Owen, an agent of Spain, was always by his side, and Tyrone dared 
not seem friendly with the English in his presence. 



TYRONE'S DEMANDS OF SPAIN 409 

Tyrone now calls himself, must be appointed Cap- 
tain-General of all Ireland, " as no Irishman will 
consent to be governed by one of lower rank 
than himself." O'Donnell and Desmond (James 
FitzThomas), respectively, must be recognised as 
governors of Connaught and Munster, and the Irish 
people must be adopted by Philip, either as sub- 
jects, allies, or proteges. The war should be actively 
prosecuted during the spring and summer, and all 
the Irish gentlemen in Spain and Flanders should 
be sent in the expedition when it comes. The 
Pope, moreover, should be urged to excommunicate 
all Irishmen who aid the heretics, and no Irish 
ship should be allowed in a Spanish port without 
a licence from Tyrone. Artillery and harness must 
be sent, but no horses are needed. The plan now 
proposed by Tyrone was for Philip to seize in 
Spanish ports all the Irish, Scottish, and Breton 
ships that had gone thither as usual for cargoes 
of wine. These should be loaded with men and 
arms, and, under the convoy of ten small ships 
of war, be sent to Ireland. "If any disaster 
occurs," says Tyrone somewhat ungenerously, "your 
Majesty will lose less than if you sent your own 
galleys." Above all, he says, the way to cast out 
the heretics speedily and cheaply will be for the 
expedition to go to Carlingford, forty miles from 
Dublin. " Operating from there, the Spaniards may 
expel in three days four of the six English garrisons 
in O'Neil's country, and more can be done there 
against the English in six months than elsewhere 
in many years. If the force goes to Munster the 
war will be interminable." 



410 TREASON AND PLOT 

But Tyrone closes his long despatch discourag- 
ingly. The Catholics, he says, are tired of fighting, 
and if aid be not promptly sent they must make 
peace with the English. The Queen offered them 
liberty of conscience, and to each chief the pos- 
session of his lands, with many new privileges. The 
Catholics have hitherto refused peace out of affec- 
tion to his Majesty ; but the King of Scotland has 
now offered to make good terms for them with the 
Englishwoman, and they may be forced to accept 
them. '* Most nations dislike Spain. The Irish 
love it." It is only just, therefore, that they should 
be succoured ; but help must come at once to be of 
any use. 

This reference to James was hardly likely to 
strengthen the Irish cause in Spain. The Scottish 
envoy already referred to (page 388) had been re- 
ceived ceremoniously, but, as we have seen by 
Fitzherbert's report, insincerely. The rallying to 
James's side of the non-Spanish Catholic elements 
in Europe had, in fact, caused the utmost uneasiness 
amongst the Jesuits and thorough-going Spaniards 
everywhere, as it had also done to a large number 
of the English people, though for opposite reasons. 
The logical result of James's Catholic intrigue, so 
far as the English Government was concerned, was 
to cause an active renewal of the negotiations for 
peace with Flanders and Spain, to which reference 
will be made presently ; but in the Spanish court it 
gave a pretext for the opening of a fresh series of 
intrigues with the object of defeating the party of 
compromise, and seating upon the English throne 
a nominee of Spain. 



THE JESUITS AGAIN INTERVENE 411 

Father Persons was now the Rector of the English 
College in Rome/ and from him came, fittingly, the 
renewed note of alarm. Notwithstanding his famous 
book and his constant efforts to forward the Infanta's 
candidature, he had never been able to persuade 
Philip II. to proclaim officially his daughter's claim 
to the English throne. The Queen of England was 
now getting old and feeble, the King of Scots, with 
his cunning and ability, was grouping around him 
every interest that could help him, and Spain 
alone, for which Persons and his friends had worked 
incessantly for twenty years, stood slothfully by 
boasting, whilst the great prize of England ripened 
to drop into the ready hands of the very man whose 
accession seemed to threaten Spain with extinction 
as a power, and the final defeat of Spanish-Catholic 
supremacy in Europe. Persons therefore asked the 
Duke of Sessa, the Spanish Ambassador in Rome, 
to address a despatch upon the subject to the King ; 
and at the same time he arranged through his agents 
in England for the extreme English Catholics to send 
a memorandum to Father Creswell, their representa- 
tive in the Spanish capital, praying Philip for a 
decision in accordance with their views, in anticipa- 
tion of the proximate death of Elizabeth. 

^ Persons' ability and authority had reduced the turbulent Roman 
College to something approaching order, but in the meanwhile his own 
college of Valladolid was feeling strongly the revulsion caused amongst 
the young English students to the anti-patriotic Jesuit teaching. A 
considerable number of them ran away and took the Benedictine habit 
especially ; and thenceforward some of the most unselfish missionaries 
who faced martyrdom in England were drawn from that order, which, 
according to Father Watson (" Quodlibets "), the Jesuits were desirous of 
suppressing in the event of a revival of the Catholic supremacy in 
England. A very interesting account of the Benedictine Mission at 
the period will be found in Dom Bede Camm's "Life of John Eoberts." 



412 TREASON AND PLOT 

This was in the spring of 1600, and the inter- 
minable secret discussions on the question in the 
Spanish Council took place at the same time as their 
deliberations on the Irish expedition related on pages 
403-407. The result they arrived at was to recommend 
the King to adopt his half-sister the Infanta as his 
nominee to the English throne, and that Father 
Persons alone should be cautiously informed of the 
fact by the Duke of Sessa, in order that it might be 
conveyed in strict secrecy to the leading Catholics 
in England, who were opposed to a Scottish ruler. 
The Infanta^ and her husband were also to be in- 
formed, by means of an autograph letter from the 
King, of the honour intended for them. They were 
to be urged to promote the plan by means of secret 
agents in England, and to be lavish of money and 
promises in order to win over useful adherents. In 
the meanwhile it was recommended that the Irish 
expedition should go forward, and 200,000 ducats 
be sent to the Spanish Ambassador in Flanders 
(Zuniga), to hold for the moment that Elizabeth 
should die : "so that he may be able promptly to 
provide troops and whatever else may be needed for 
successfully carrying through the business, which 
principally depends upon celerity of action at the 
proper time." ^ Some of the councillors were alarmed 
at the idea that Flanders and England under one 
sovereign might in time become a danger to Spain ; 
and it was decided that the Infanta should be told 
that if she became Queen of England she must give 

1 Isabel Clara Eugenia, the eldest daughter of Philip, was, it will 
be recollected, married to her cousin, the Archduke, and was with him 
joint sovereign of Flanders. 

- Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



THE ENGLISH SUCCESSION 413 

up the Belgic provinces to Philip. This, although 
only two members seemed to see it, was sufficient 
to render the whole plan nugatory. The Infanta 
was not likely to give up the State she had inherited 
for one she would have to conquer and hold by force 
of arms ; whilst the main attraction to Englishmen 
of any such solution as that proposed was the cer- 
tainty of a close union between Flanders and England, 
always a necessity for both countries. 

The despatches from the Duke of Sessa which 
had given rise to this discussion are more important 
for the elucidation of an obscure point in English 
history than for the inept, self-destructive, decision 
just described. Father Persons assured the Duke that 
if action were taken promptly, " not only Catholics, 
but also many heretics will flock to his Majesty's 
side ; even the principal councillors, such as the 
Lord-Admiral, the Lord Treasurer (Buckhurst), and 
Secretary Cecil. It is impossible now to say how far 
Father Persons was warranted in making this state- 
ment ; but it is evident that communications had 
passed between a group of English noblemen and 
his agents,^ because in his list of possible candi- 
dates as alternatives to the Infanta proposed by the 
English Catholics, he mentions the Duke of Savoy, 
whose wife (a daughter of Philip II.) had recently 
died ; and suggests that he should marry Arabella 

1 It is likewise very significant that at this period (July i6cx3), 
Cobham and Ralegh, who were afterwards sacrificed for having 
plotted with Spain against James, had been sent by Cecil to Flanders, 
ostensibly for the purpose of informing Lord Grey that the Queen was 
relenting towards him. It is quite within the bounds of probability 
that communications then passed between them and the English refu- 
gees with regard to the succession. 



414 TREASON AND PLOT 

Stuart; and more curious still, the only English 
nobleman suggested in the list was the Earl of 
Worcester/ " a Catholic of good parts, who, 
although he has no claim to the crown, might 
marry the daughter of the Earl of Derby." These 
suggestions could not have been made without the 
connivance of the persons mentioned. Still the 
English Catholics for whom Persons spoke ex- 
pressed their great preference for the Infanta; and 
the Spanish Council decided to mention no other 
name, either in approval or otherwise, until matters 
were further developed. On one point every Coun- 
cillor was absolutely agreed, namely, that the most 
important thing was " utterly to exclude the Kings 
of Scotland and France." " As in a matter of this 
sort right is the least important element of the 
claim, although it is necessary in order to justify 
the employment of force, the Council is of opinion 
that the financial question should be first considered 
and decided ; whilst the forces in Flanders and the 
fleet should be made ready, so that on the very day 
that the Queen dies a movement may be made from 
both sides {i.e. Flanders and Ireland) simultaneously 
in favour of the object aimed at." Philip was, as 
we have seen, slothful and pleasure-loving, deciding 

1 The Earl of Worcester (Henry Somerset) was an elderly man, wlio 
died in the following year (1601), leaving a small fortune and a large 
family. The person referred to in the text is probably his son, Lord 
Herbert, and curiously enough at the period when the Spanish Council 
were discussing his candidature for the English crown, he was marry- 
ing with great pomp and splendour Anne (or Elizabeth) Russell, a cousin 
of Sir Robert Cecil's. Accounts of this magnificent festivity will be 
found in Chamberlain's " Letters " and Nichols' " Progresses of Queen 
Elizabeth." See also Lady Russell's letter to Cecil, Hatfield Papers, 
vol. vii. p. 267. 



THE ENGLISH SUCCESSION 415 

often by impulse, but neglecting to insist upon his 
decisions being carried out. Everything was left to 
Lerma, who was too lavish in Spain to be anxious 
to undertake much expenditure elsewhere. So, 
month after month passed without any active 
orders being obtained from them with regard to the 
English succession.^ Father Creswell, who, of course, 
M^as ignorant of the discussion I have just described, 
incessantly prayed for an answer that he might send 
to England, but for months he begged in vain. 
There was no promptitude to be expected from 
Philip III. any more than there had been from 
Philip II., in the one case because he worked too little, 
and in the other because he had worked too much. 

At length, early in December 1600, Father Cres- 
well appears to have been asked his opinion as to the 
form in which an answer to the English Catholics 
should be drafted ; and the memorandum which 
he consequently submitted to the King begins with 
a somewhat obscure suggestion. " The answer," he 
says, " should include some general reference to the 
pretensions of the Earl of Essex, so as to open the 
door to an arrangement by which he may be gained 

1 During this period (the autumn of 1600) an event happened which 
shows how keen the Jesuit party was to lose no point in the game. 
The Duke of Parma, who had a far better claim to the English throne 
than Philip or the Infanta, was intriguing in Eome to obtain a cardi- 
nal's hat for Arthur Pole (nephew of Cardinal Pole) ; but the Jesuits 
took fright at this at once. Pole, they said, was only twenty-five, and 
practically a foreigner, and worst of all, " he will not be a fit instru- 
ment to aid in the object desired by all good English Catholics in your 
Majesty's interests, as the most intimate English friends he has have 
been those opposed to your Majesty." The English Jesuit party, 
through Thomas Fitzherbert, therefore, urged Philip to move the Pope 
to make Father Persons a cardinal instead of Pole (Brit. Mus. MSS. 
28,420). 



4i6 TREASON AND PLOT 

to the service of God and your Majesty."^ As he 
did on a former occasion (page 224), Creswell urges 
the necessity of an appearance of great moderation 
and mildness, and his draft answer points out " that 
the fault being national rather than personal, it will 
be unjust to treat heretics in England as they are 
treated in Spain, or as they were treated in England 
by Queen Mary. Conversion may be best forwarded 
by caring well for working people, and by winning 
converts by suavity and mildness." The principal 
Catholics, he thought, should be informed privately 
that the King of Spain would support the Infanta's 
claim with a powerful force when the Queen died, 
but no time must be lost or they will rally to the 
King of Scots, Certainly, continues Creswell, 
" any new sovereign of England (except a Spanish 
nominee) will be worse for Spanish interests even 
than Elizabeth ; because by granting freedom of 
conscience he will conciliate a certain faction in 

^ It is not easy to see liow Essex's pretensions coixld have been re- 
conciled with Spanish aims ; but as it was known that he had been 
in treasonable communication with Tyrone, who had reported that he 
(Essex) was willing, in return for favours to himself, "to hand the 
country over to your Majesty" (Philip), Father Creswell doubtless 
believed this to have been the case, and that Essex could be bought by 
the concession to him of power and wealth. It is, however, fair to say 
that this statement only rests upon Tj^rone's word as repeated by the 
Archbishop of Dublin, Mateo de Oviedo. Considerable strength is 
given to the chance of its truth by a note written in April 1601 by 
Father Bluet on a letter from Dr. 13agshaw to him, asking for further 
particulars of Persons' hand in Essex's matter ('' Jesuits and Seculars," 
from Petyt MSS.). Bluet writes : " Mr. Parsons about three yeares 
since was tampering and hatching a plotte to set up Essex against her 
Majestic. Hereof he brake w*'' a priest, and acquayting hym w* ye 
helpes y* he sliuld haue out of Spayne and ye Lowe Contries, moved 
ye said priest to be his messenger of this matter unto ye earle. But ye 
priest refused to be a dealer in such cause, and yet gaue him good words 
lest otherwise he might haue procured hym to be sent to ye galleys." 



BOTH WELL IN SPAIN 417 

Rome, and will prevent the Catholics from looking 
to your Majesty." Above all, he prays that an 
answer should be speedily sent to England, in which 
recommendation the Council concurred, though they 
rejected his hint that Arabella Stuart or the Earl of 
Derby's daughter (sister?) should be mentioned as 
alternatives to the Infanta. But again the whole 
business was relegated to the pigeon-holes of Philip 
and Lerma, and still no decided answer was sent to 
the English Catholics. 

Nor were the Irish and English appeals the only 
ones that at this time occupied the ponderous delibe- 
rations of Philip's advisers. Bothwell, after trying un- 
successfully to intrigue with Cecil, to whom he offered 
his services as a spy, had travelled from Flanders to 
Spain, and was for ever bombarding the King and 
Lerma with projects and memoranda for the "con- 
version" of Scotland. His first plan was for 3000 
troops to land in the Orkneys, which belonged to his 
brother, the Earl of Caithness. The latter was to 
contribute 4000 clansmen, and, after fortifying the 
islands, the force was to seize Broughty and Perth, 
which, Bothwell said, could be made impregnable. 
The advantages he promised from this step were 
enormous. The Dutch could be crippled by the 
stoppage of all their commerce ; the Queen of 
England would be forced to stand on the defensive 
with all her resources ; the Irish could be supported 
with ease from the west coast, and the King of 
France would find himself checkmated by the only 
means that could frustrate his plans,^ as he would be 

1 War between France and Spain was threatening in consequence of 
the claim of France to the Marquisate of Saluzzo. 

2 D 



41 S TREASON AND PLOT 

obliged to seud troops to Scotland. The principal 
object, however, at lirst professed by Bothwell was 
that James should be rendered powerless to push 
his claim to the English crown when Elizabeth 
should die. If he is allowed to establish himself in 
England, " he will be a greater enemy to God and 
Spain than ever, since he will be very powerful by 
land and sea, aided by Denmark, Holland, and all 
the heretics." ^ Again and again Bothwell returned 
to the charge. The Irish enterprise could not be 
undertaken successfully, he assured Philip, unless in 
conjunction with an invasion of Scotland, which 
would furnish a base of supplies. Then his plans 
became larger : 4000 men should land in the Orkneys 
and 4000 in Kirkcudbright, the noblemen of the 
north and west, all of whose names he gives, will 
be ready to join the Spaniards when they land ; the 
Catholic Church in Scotland must pay the whole of 
the expense of the war, and a Spanish ambassador 
should be sent to Scotland at once to arrange the 
business secretly with the Catholic nobles. 

All this was, of course, visionary, and in the cir- 
cumstances impossible, seeing the linancial and ad- 
ministrative condition of Spain ; but to add to its 
impracticability Bothwell somewhat later suggested 
conditions that might, he thought, be proposed for 
bringing in James himself. The King of Scots 
might be recognised by Spain as King of England 
if he would marry his son to the Duke of Savoy's 
daughter and his daughter to the Duke of Savoy 
himself, the Prince (Henry) being sent to live in 
Spain under Philip's control. "There is no other 

1 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv., Simancas. 



JAMES STILL ACTIVE 419 

alternative but to make peace and a firm alliance 
with the King of Scots before the Queen of England 
dies, or else to make a determined war which will 
utterly ruin and destroy him, which will be easy for 
his Majesty." Bothwell did not apparently care 
very much which course was adopted so long as 
his intriguing spirit might be employed in promot- 
ing it ; but Philip was powerless to undertake such 
a task as the invasion of Scotland, even with the 
questionable aid of the shifty Scottish nobles. It 
was seen that in every Scottish plan there still lurked 
the possibility of James Stuart being placed on the 
English throne by the Catholics as a consequence of 
his assumed conversion, and this, as we have seen 
from the first, was the one solution which Spain 
dreaded of all things. So Bothwell's grand schemes 
were all vaguely praised and relegated to the oblivion 
of Lerma's pigeon-holes, whilst he was kept in hand 
by great pensions on paper and small payments in 
cash.^ 

Whilst the Spaniards were thus trifling, James 
Stuart was busier than ever. Patrick Stuart and 
James Drummond were sent to the Pope in the 
summer of t6oo" to confirm the promise previously 

^ One ficheiDe of Eotliwell's wa.s accepted (August 1600), although I 
can find no i-ecord of its having been carried into effect. Lord Burleigh, 
a Scottish Baron, had been sent by .James as his ambassador to Holland 
to obtain the recognition of the States to his English claims. Burleigh 
was instructed to purchase in Holland 20,000 muskets and as many 
cuirasses to send to Scotland; "but,'' .said Bothwell, "he is so good a 
servant of mine that it will be easy to induce him to bring all the-se 
arms hither instead of to Scotland " (Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar). 

2 The Master of Gray sent to England the copy of the letter written 
Vjy .James to the Pope, in which the Cardinal's hat was requested for 
the Carthusian Chisholm, BLshop of Vaison, and a confirmation sent of 
the promi.se taken by the latter of concessions to the Catholics in 



420 TREASON AND PLOT 

taken to Eome by the Scottish Carthusian Bishop of 
Vaison (for whom James asked for a cardinal's hat), 
and to pray for the money promised by the Pontiff 
for making war upon heretic England. Father 
Persons in Rome was now almost fiercely remon- 
strating with the Duke of Sessa, as the Scottish 
King's successful hoodwinking of the Papacy and 
the Catholics everywhere became more and more 
apparent. Persons had persuaded the Pope to 
throw cold water on Constable's romantic efforts to 
convert James in the spring of 1600, but, as we 
have seen in the last chapter, Constable had then 
managed to enlist the French in his plans, and 
had gone to Scotland in conjunction with Bethune 
and other French representatives. They had man- 
aged also to bring into the plan the Pope's Nuncio 
in Paris, and had swept into their net most or all of 
the English refugees, who had despaired of a Spanish 
dispensation after the death of Philip II. and the 

cotland. This was accompanied by professions of reverence to the 
Pontiff. Elizabeth indignantly sent Bowes to demand an explanation 
from James, who solemnly declared that he had sent no such letter, 
which assertion the Secretary of State, Elphinstone (Lord Balmerino), 
confirmed. At a subsequent period Cardinal Bellarmin published the 
letter, and upon investigation Elphinstone confessed that the King's 
signature had been obtained by a trick and that the King was ignorant 
of the contents of the letter. Elphinstone accordingly was tried and 
condemned, but pardoned on the intercession of the Queen of Scots. 
Both Kobertson and Dr. Gardiner appear to accept Elphinstone's con- 
fession in good faith, and the Scottish Jesuit, Creighton, who had 
been concerned at Rome in Drummond's mission, endeavoured to let 
his King down gently by declaring that in the letter James did not 
profess to be a Catholic. With the many letters now before us in 
which James does pretend his desire for reconciliation with Rome, the 
most probable explanation of Elphinstone's action in this particular 
case is that he sacrificed himself to save his sovereign's reputation, and 
on that, as on so many, other occasions, James lied like the coward 
he was. 



JESUIT EFFORTS RENEWED 421 

stoppage of their pensions. Emissaries of this 
strong combination actively sped between Paris, 
Rome, England, and Scotland, and their errands 
were soon divulged to Persons (December 1600)/ 
The association of the King of France with James 
in his plans made the matter all the more alarming 
for the Jesuit party, for Henry was their deadliest 
enemy, reigning as he did by means of conciliation 
and tolerance. Persons reported that already Henry 
had begun to make an arrangement with the English 
nobles, both Catholics and heretics, to obtain some 
measure of toleration for the former during the 
Queen's life and for James to succeed on the same 
lines when she died. The promoters of the scheme, 
he said, had their agents with the Earl of Essex and 
other members of the Queen's Council for the pur- 
pose of settling the details, and if something was not 
done at once the cause of the Infanta was ruined.^ 
This seems somewhat to have aroused Philip's Govern- 
ment, who in consequence sent orders to the Duke 
of Sessa to watch matters closely in Rome and to 
alienate the Pope from the King of Scotland. Again 
the Spanish Council of State prayed the King of 
Spain to make up his mind openly to champion the 
Infanta's claim. Here was England slipping from 

^ It must not be forgotten tliat at this period also the Archpriest con- 
troversy was in full swing. The English Seculars, many of whom had 
been suspended by the Archjjriest Blackwell for schism, had appealed 
to the University of Paris for judgment on the points involved. The 
Faculty of Theology decided in favour of the appellants, and Blackwell 
condemned the judgment as injurious to the Holy See. A fresh 
appeal from the Seculars was then sent to the Pontiff. Persons was, of 
course, in the thick of the dispute in Rome, the political bearing of the 
controversy being now as important as the religious. 

2 Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. p. 683. 



42 2 TREASON AND PLOT 

his grasp, they told him, for want of resolute action. 
Persons had assured the Duke of Sessa that he had 
means for gaining to his side certain members of 
the English Council, and this was acknowledged to 
be of the highest importance, but still no prompt 
action was taken. Persons had to confer with Sessa, 
and the latter had to communicate with Brussels 
and Valladolid, where infinite time was wasted in 
discussion and in the King's indecision. And so 
everything on the Spanish side dragged and dragged 
whilst all other interests were alert and working. 

But these intrigues, impotent on the one side and 
active on the other, give us a clue to the unsolved 
riddles of Essex's fate and the obscure tragedies 
that ushered in the reign of James. Exactly how 
far Essex and his friends were pledged to the 
Franco-Scottish intrigue just mentioned it is diffi- 
cult to say, though, as he was in close and confiden- 
tial communication with James, as the latter was 
with the French King and the Pope, it is fair to 
conclude that Essex was cognisant of the whole 
plan,^ and was either convinced of the falsity of 
James's professions of Catholicism or was content 
to sacrifice the Protestant cause for the sake of his 
personal ambition. It is quite as certain, on the 
other hand, that Persons, probably through Garnet 
or Blackwell, had some sort of understanding with 
a group of English nobles who professed to have 
gained, or to be able to gain, some of the members 
of the Council. These members, of course, could 

^ It must not be forgotten also that after Essex's revolt Boissise, the 
French Ambassador, interceded with the Queen for him, " the greatest 
friend of France in all England." 



PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 423 

only be those of the moderate party, most of whom 
were secret Catholics opposed to Essex and to the 
French or Scottish alliance.^ The Lord Admiral, 
Cobham, Pembroke, Shrewsbury, and Cecil belonged 
to this party, and these, or some of them, must be 
the men indirectly alluded to by Persons. It is pro- 
bable that some whisper of these communications 
may have reached Essex, and have given him the 
pretext for the cry he raised on his hare-brained 
attempt at revolution, that Cecil and his party had 
sold England to the Infanta. 

During the disgrace of Essex after his return from 
Ireland, active negotiations for peace with Spain 
were proceeding. As invariably was the case when 
Scotland and France drew together, Spain and Eng- 
land did the same. Sir Thomas Edmunds was sent 
to greet the Archduke and the Infanta, and was 
received with unusual honours, and in February 
1600 Verreyken, the Flemish envoy, came to Eng- 
land, where, says Chamberlain, the Queen received 
him "with all the ceremonies and compliments that 
could be devised." Whilst Essex was languishing a 
prisoner at York House it must have been gall and 
wormwood for him to hear of the grand feasts with 
which the emissary of a Spanish prince was enter- 
tained at the English court. " He (Verreyken) on 
Monday and Wednesday sat at the Lord Treasurer's 
in council with the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Admiral, 
the Lord Chamberlain (Hunsdon), Mr. Secretary 

^ I consider it extremely unlikely that the Spanish Jesuits' plan of 
winning Essex to their side was ever seriously undertaken. From the 
note of Bluet, quoted on page 416, it is plain that though Bagshaw 
was anxious to obtain particulars for the purpose of damaging Persons 
and his party, the accusation rested on a flimsy foundation. 



424 TREASON AND PLOT 

(Cecil), and Sir John Fortescue. The negotiation is 
kept very close. . . . Our discoursers shoot many 
bolts in this business, which to them seems so 
entangled and intricate that in seeking to undo one 
knot they make two. . . . Whatsoever the reason 
is, methinks we are not so hot on this peace as we 
were, and the least stop in such a cause may turn 
the tide." ^ There were many considerations which 
made peace difficult of arrangement, but in good 
truth the desire of Cecil was not so much peace — 
unless indeed on such terms as Spain was not yet 
humble enough to grant — as the appearance of a 
rapprochement between England and Spain as a 
countercheck to James's Catholic intrigues. In 
March Edmunds was again sent back to Flanders 
to discuss with the sovereigns the time and place for 
a conference, whilst " Sir Walter Ealegh attends the 
ambassador (Verreyken) much, and carries him up 
and down to see the sights and rarities hereabouts. 
He hath had him at Powles, at Westminster, at 
Whitehall, and where not. This day he is feasted 
at the Lord Treasurer's and to-morrow at the Lord 
Chamberlain's, where methinkes it shold be some- 
what strange to see carowses to the King of Spaine's 
health." ' 

At length, after infinite bickering about the place 
of meeting, Boulogne was agreed upon, where the 

1 Chamberlain's Letters. See also Rowland Whyte's Letters in the 
Sidney Papers, which give a glowing account of the festivities. 
Verreyken lodged at the house of Alderman Baning at Dowgate, 
which being near the ancient Gildhouse of the Hanse, was the quarter 
of the Easterlings. 

2 lUd., March 5. The Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon, the Queen's 
first cousin, was a member of the Puritan party. 



NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN 425 

English Commissioners arrived in the middle of 
May, and the Flemings and Spaniards shortly after- 
wards.-^ The differences were quite irreconcilable 
from the first, for Elizabeth could not afford to 
abandon the Dutch unaided to the tender mercies 
of Spain, or to allow them to seek safety by appeal- 
ing to France ; whilst, on the other hand, Spain 
would not yet acknowledge herself completely beaten 
and surrender her dream of Catholic supremacy. In 
fact, however, the grave issues were never even ap- 
proached by the conference. The principal point in 
the instructions of the Spanish representative was 
that he must be "very circumspect to uphold the 
dignity and prestige of our King." The first step 
taken with this object was to arrive at Boulogne 
after the English envoys, in order that the latter 
might, as Zuniga says, have the good manners to pay 
the first visit. But the Englishmen were on their 
guard, and merely sent a servant to exchange copies 
of powers. Then endless haggling by correspond- 
ence took place as to the style to be given to the 
Archduke, Serene Highness being at last agreed 
to. When, however, the question of precedence in 
the mention of England and Spain came forward, a 
deadlock occurred. " They are so obstinate," wrote 
Zuniga, " in claiming precedence, notwithstanding 

1 Sir John Herbert, Sir Eobert Beale, Thomas Edmunds (afterwards 
knighted), and Sir Henry Neville were the English representatives, 
Louis Verreyken and President Jehan Richardot the Flemish, and 
Baltasar de Zuniga and Fernando Carillo the Spanish. A full account 
of the negotiations will be found in Neville's and Winwood's Corre- 
spondence (Winwood Papers), and in British Museum, Cotton. Vesp. 
cviii., as well as in the uncalendared papers of the date at Hatfield, 
the French Correspondence in the Record Ofl6.ce, and the Spanish State 
Papers Calendar, vol. iv. 



426 TREASON AND PLOT 

our serious arguments, that we closed the colloquy, 
and we shall not again enter upon the matter." The 
English then suggested that they should toss up or 
cast lots for precedence, which greatly shocked the 
Spaniards, as being undignified. Much discussion 
and various suggested ingenious expedients followed 
to get over the difficulty, the most hopeful being that 
the meeting should be held in the lodgings of the 
Spanish envoys, who then, as hosts, would give their 
guests, the English, the place of honour. But this 
was refused by the English, and weeks more were 
wasted whilst instructions came from the respective 
Governments. The utter hollowness of the negotia- 
tion is seen by the view taken by the Spanish 
Council of State. They were furiously indignant 
with Zuniga and Carillo for discussing or consider- 
ing the English claim for precedence, or even for 
equality. " Such a claim," they said, " had never 
been advanced before, and it is not befitting so great 
a King as ours that it should be listened to for a 
moment." So the envoys were smartly reprehended, 
and carefully warned to admit nothing derogatory to 
the King's dignity, "which," said the Council, "was 
so fully established that no discussion as to equality 
must be allowed." The temper of Elizabeth and her 
Government was, with better reason, quite as firm as 
that of the Spaniards, and the deadlock continued, 
both sides in the meanwhile looking to events in 
Ireland and Savoy respectively to render their anta- 
gonists more yielding. 

But whilst it must have been evident almost from 
the first that nothing would come of the negotia- 
tions, Zuniga made good use of his opportunities 



THE CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND 427 

for plotting and planning with the English Catholics 
of the Jesuit party. He wrote to his King in Sep- 
tember 1600: "The English Catholics and Jesuits in 
England are pressing gravely for the invasion of 
England to be undertaken, which they say they can 
facilitate by means of the Catholics there. This will 
be effected by opening negotiations in your Majesty's 
name with some leading personages ; and Zuhiga 
says that they (the English Catholics) desire above 
all things that some decision should be adopted with 
regard to the succession, as they are very distrust- 
ful as to whether your Majesty will take the matter 
up. He (Zuniga) is keeping them in hand as well 
as he can, but arguments are no longer of any avail. 
The Catholics tell him that the Irish enterprise will 
not be of much use in the English affair ; because, 
although the Irishmen are Catholics, they are not to 
be trusted, owing to their ancient enmity against 
England. Zuhiga himself is of opinion that no 
money can be better spent than that employed in 
supporting the Earl of Tyrone." ^ 

This letter from Zuniga was seized upon by the 
Spanish Council as an opportunity for once more 
urging their slothful King to action, and at the 
same time they made a noteworthy admission of the 
wane of Spanish power. " There is no need," they 
wrote, "to discuss the enterprise (i.e. invasion) pro- 
posed by the (English) Catholics, as experience has 
shown the impossibility of conquering the country 
from here, even under better circumstances than at 
present ; but, in order to keep hold of the English 
Catholics, it will be advisable for your Majesty to 

1 Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



42 8 TREASON AND PLOT 

adopt some resolution respecting the succession. If 
this be not done in good time, the Catholics may 
join the King of Scots or some other claimant." 
And so the negotiations for peace with England 
simply resolved themselves into a conspiracy against 
her ; but it answered the purpose of both Govern- 
ments to drag them out for their respective national 
objects. 

This hollow junketing with Spain, from which 
he, of course, was excluded, seems to have driven 
Essex finally to despair. Still forbidden from the 
Queen's presence, though in the autumn he had 
been released from custody, he must have heard 
through his zealous friends and spies plentiful 
whispers of plots to counteract the Catholic acti- 
vity of the King of Scots — plots which, if they were 
successful, would mean his own ruin. Father Per- 
sons' talk of his agreement with high English 
Catholic nobles, and Zuniga's close communications 
with the leaders of the same party, can hardly have 
been entirely hidden from Essex, and drove him 
onward to his catastrophe. By means of the papers 
quoted in these pages we are able, perhaps for the 
first time, to understand how futile all these in- 
trigues were rendered by the sluggish ineptitude of 
the Spanish King and his Government. There was, 
we can now perceive, no danger really to be appre- 
hended from plots which depended for their exe- 
cution upon the decisions of Philip III. and Lerma; 
but it must not be forgotten that contemporaries 
were not able, as we are, to see the hands of all the 
players at the great game, and Essex, doubtless, 
represented many of his countrymen, especially of 



ESSEX'S REBELLION 429 

the Puritan party, in believing that the work of the 
Reformation was to be undone, and England sold 
to Spain and the Jesuits by Elizabeth's principal 
Ministers. 

The scope of this book does not admit of a re- 
petition of the details of Essex's foolish attempt at 
revolution, but it will be necessary to glance at the 
accusations brought by him, and against him, with 
regard to the intended betrayal of the Protestant 
cause. We have seen sufficient of his ambitious and 
vindictive temper to know that his first thought 
must have been to revenge himself upon those he 
hated, and to secure for himself at least the dictator- 
ship of England ; but it must have been obvious, 
even to him, blinded by his popularity as he was, 
that some better cause than his personal aims must 
be alleged before he could arouse a law-abiding 
people to rebellion. The not unfounded suspicions 
of Spanish intrigue, to which I have referred, gave 
him the cry he needed. Whether he believed them 
to the full himself matters little ; if he could make 
other people of his party believe them, his end would 
be served. 

After his liberation in August he tried desperately 
to regain the good graces of the Queen. Lord 
Henry Howard, his false friend, who betrayed him^ 
as he betrayed every other creature that trusted him, 
carried to the Queen abject letters of submission and 
despair from her fallen favourite. The Queen dryly 
hoped that the writer s deeds might match his words, 
but she showed no signs of relenting. In October, 
we are told by Chamberlain, the friends of Essex 
were trying to obtain permission for him to join the 



430 TREASON AND PLOT 

tilting on the Queen's birthday, "and they are very 
confident to see him shortly in favour. You may 
believe as much of it as you list, but I ne'er a whit, 
for till I see his license for sweet wines renewed 
(that expired at Michaelmas), or some other sub- 
stantial favour, I shall esteem words as wind and 
holy water at court." When Elizabeth came to 
understand that the first object of his tearful prayers 
was to obtain a renewal of his sweet-wine monopoly, 
her heart hardened more than ever. Penitence and 
remorse, that he might gaze upon her bewildering 
beauty again, was of course natural, and might in 
time have melted her, but to find that he was only 
hankering after money aroused her rage, and she 
refused his hint insultingly. ** An ungovernable 
beast," she said, " must be stinted of his provender," 
and Essex, thus repulsed, sought for favour no more. 
Thenceforward his only chance was to overturn 
by force and destroy all the men who surrounded 
the Queen. We have seen that he had appealed 
in vain to his successor in Ireland, Montjoy, to 
bring over the Queen's army to coerce the Queen's 
Government, and that his cry for aid to the King 
of Scots had been answered by vague promises.^ 



•* When Montjoy had first gone to Ireland in the early spring of 1600 
(Essex's fate being then undecided), he had sent to James, offering to 
bring over the Queen's troops to England for the purpose of co-operat- 
ing with the Scottish King's forces and Essex, for the removing 
Elizabeth's advisers and securing the acknowledgment of James's right 
to the succession, with, incidentally, Essex's future paramountcy. 
James hesitated ; for he did not really wish to be King of a faction or 
to fight against his future subjects. When Essex, later in the year, 
urged Montjoy to act alone, the latter natiirally refused to risk his head 
only to serve Essex's ambition (Confessions of Sir Charles Danvers and 
the Earl of Southampton). 



ESSEX'S REBELLION 431 

At length, however, James consented to send a 
formal embassy to demand of Elizabeth the recog- 
nition of his rights, on the understanding that 
Essex should seize the Government by a coup de 
main at the same time and force the Queen to con- 
sent/ During the winter of 1600-160 1 Essex threw 
aside the attitude of love-lorn despair, which had 
proved ineffectual, and threw open the doors of 
Essex House to the members of the advanced 
Puritan party. Violent sermons were preached 
against Rome and all her works ; the Earl's old 
friends and adherents flocked to his anterooms, 
as did the rabble of idle captains and younger sons, 
who looked to him for advancement, and the lead- 
ing citizens, to whom the very name of Spain was 
anathema ; and it was impossible for Cecil to shut 
his eyes to the fact that Essex was gathering around 
him the elements of revolt. 

Whilst this was going on at Essex House, 
the leading conspirators, Essex, Southampton, Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, Sir Charles Danvers, and others, 
matured their plans, as they thought secretly, at 
Drury House hard by. The Government, however, 

^ The instructions suggested by Essex to be given by James to his 
ambassador, the Earl of Mar, are important as showing that the pre- 
text for the movement was to be mainly religious. Certain of her 
highest Ministers, the Queen was to be told, meant to take advantage 
of the succession being open to ruin the country. The West Country 
was commanded by Ralegh, the Cinque Ports by Cobham. The navy 
was in the hands of the Lord Admiral, the Treasury was controlled by 
the Lord Treasurer (Buckhurst), whilst Cecil had placed his brother as 
governor of the north, and Sir George Carew commanded in Munster, 
the key of Ireland. All these men bear malice against the King of 
Scots, " and all theyre counsayles and endeavours tend to the advance- 
ment of the Infanta of Spayne to the succession to the crown." The 
reason for these assertions is given at length in Cuff's confession. 



432 TREASON AND PLOT 

were quite cognisant of the objects of the con- 
spiracy, and it was important that the attempt 
should be nipped in the bud before the arrival 
of the Earl of Mar with James's demands. On the 
7th February 1601, accordingly, Essex was sum- 
moned by Secretary Herbert to appear before the 
Council, but excused himself from attending on the 
plea of illness. Gathering his principal friends at 
Drury House on the same day, he told them that 
the affair was discovered, and asked them whether 
they would move thus prematurely or submit. 
Dismay sat upon every brow, and there was a 
general feeling that submission would be the wiser 
course. A message from Sheriff Smyth promising 
the aid of 1000 of the trained band of the city 
seems to have turned the scale, and the fatal 
decision was adopted of raising the cry of revolt 
early next morning. The original plan of seizing 
Whitehall by surprise was now, of course, impos- 
sible, as the Queen's Guard was on the alert ; but 
messengers were sent through the city in the even- 
ing, Saturday, to spread the news that Ealegh and 
Cobham intended to kill the Earl of Essex. And 
early on Sunday morning the 8th February Essex's 
friends Southampton, Monteagle, Sandys, Rutland, 
and 300 gentlemen met at Essex House with the 
intention of riding into the city, and arousing the 
citizens with the cry that England was sold to the 
Catholics, and that the people's idol, Essex, was to 
be done to death by the unpopular Ralegh and 
Cobham. 

Whilst they were assembling in the courtyard, a 
message came from Ralegh to his kinsman Gorges, 



ESSEX'S REBELLION 433 

asking him to meet him. Essex consented I0 his 
doing so, if the interview took place in boats on 
the river. There Ralegh solemnly warned Gorges 
of his danger, but without avail, for '' I told him that 
there were 2000 gentlemen who had resolved that 
day to die or live as free men." A committee of the 
Council was sent to Essex House to summon the 
assembly to disperse in the name of the Queen. 
'I'hey found the great courtyard opening from the 
Strand filled with armed men, amidst whom stood 
the Earl ; and as the gate closed behind the Lords 
of the Council, they found themselves prisoners, 
with a threatening crowd surrounding them. After 
a heated harangue of complaint and accusation, 
Essex led the Lords into the house, where they were 
kept as hostages, whilst the misguided conspirators, 
300 gallants and swashbucklers, hot-gospellers and 
riffraff, trooped into the City through Temple Bar. 
" For the Queen ! for the Queen ! " they cried some- 
times ; but more often that Ralegh had tried to 
kill Essex and that England had been sold to the 
Infanta. The citizens, on their way to early morn- 
ing service, flocked around agape, but raised no 
hand and few cheers. The emissaries of the Council 
sped forward to warn the Lord Mayor of his duty, 
and the chief magistrate, being at service at St. 
Paul's, ordered Ludgate to be closed. But when 
Essex and his followers appeared before the closed 
gate, and, waving his sword, the Earl told his story 
to the custodians, he was granted admission, and 
rode triumphantly up Ludgate Hill and Cheapside, 
no man, so far, staying him. 

Near the Exchange was the house of Sheriff 

2 E 



434 TREASON AND PLOT 

Smyth, his mainstay in the City; but before the 
Earl arrived there the Sheriff had taken fright and 
had rallied to the Lord Mayor, for on the steps of the 
Cross of Chepe, Cecil's brother, Lord Burghley, with 
the Lord Mayor by his side, had, in the Queen's 
name, proclaimed Essex and his followers traitors, 
and treason was no light matter under Elizabeth. 
Some of Essex's men had charged the Queen's posse, 
and Burghley's horse was killed by a petronel 
shot ; but Essex and his principal friends waited 
in vain in Smyth's house, lingering over their break- 
fast, until the Sheriff should return with his trained 
bands. As he came not, Essex grew uneasy, and 
walked up Cheapside into St. Paul's Churchyard, 
still doing nothing but complaining of his wrongs 
to his dwindling band. Whilst he was thus trifling 
the City was arming. Chains were run across the 
streets, gates were shut, and armed men were mus- 
tering, and when Essex, thoroughly alarmed, at three 
in the afternoon, thought of returning home, he 
found that only a hundred men stood by him, his 
way was barred, and the cry of treason followed him 
as he rode. Driven back from Ludgate Hill, he fled 
up Watling Street and Friday Street into Chepe 
again ; but all were against him there, and, galloping 
down Bow Lane to the river, he took boat at Queen- 
hithe to his house in the Strand. 

He entered his water-gate a beaten man : the 
Lords of the Council had been released by his 
steward, and only a few followers were with him. 
His first care was to take from his neck a little 
black taffeta bag, with the reply of King James to 
his appeal for aid, and another paper, both of which 



TRIAL OF ESSEX 435 

he burnt, and then he and a few gentlemen deter- 
mined to fight till they should fall. . But the forces 
against them were too strong ; the house was beset 
by land and water, and presently the Lord Admiral 
carried the gardens and banqueting-house. At nine 
o'clock at night two great guns were dragged to the 
main doorway, and then, after some parley, Essex 
and his deluded friends surrendered, and the next 
morning the Traitor's Gate in the Tower received 
them, whilst their followers found in arms were sent 
to the common jail.^ 

On February 19 Essex and Southampton were 
arraigned at Westminster before a court of twenty- 
six peers, Cecil, who was only a knight as yet, 
listening to all that passed, hidden behind an arras. 
The accusations against the prisoner were confined 
to the narrowest limits possible to secure his convic- 
tion on the capital offence of treason. The Govern- 
ment by this time were aware of the complicity both 
of James and Montjoy, and unless they were prepared 
to disqualify the former from the succession, and 
risk a military revolt of the latter, they dared not 
emphasise this grave element in the case. Essex 
throughout his trial loudly and wordily protested his 
loyalty to the Queen. His intention was, he said, 
to remove the advisers who were bent upon ruining 
her country by bringing in the Infanta ; and as a 
proof of this he let slip a remark which gave occa- 

1 Some few days afterwards Captain Thomas Lea conceived a plot 
for seizing tlie Privy Chamber of Whitehall by surprise and coercing 
the Queen to sign an order for the release of Essex and his friends. 
He foolishh^ divulged the plot to Sir H. Neville and Sir Eobert Cross, 
who informed Cecil of it. Lea was at once arrested, and executed 
February 17, 1601. 



436 TREASON AND PLOT 

sion for a startling and dramatic scene, in which 
practically the fates respectively of Essex and Cecil 
were sealed. He had been told, he said, that Secre- 
tary Cecil had observed to one of the councillors 
"that the Infanta's title was as good as that of any 
other person." ^ In a moment Cecil sprang from 
behind the arras, and dropping on one knee, prayed 
the court to allow him to clear himself of *' so foul 
and false a report." The peers thought there was 
no need of it ; but Cecil persisted, and in vehement 
speech dared Essex to name his informant. After 
some evasion the name was given by Southampton — 
Sir William Knollys, the uncle of Essex, and a 
cousin of the Queen. Cecil pressed that the Queen 
might be prayed to send Knollys to the tribunal 
immediately, without stating why he was required, 
and swore, on his salvation, that if the Queen sent 
him not, he (Cecil) would never more be Minister of 
hers. In breathless suspense the proceedings were 
delayed for Knollys' appearance, and when he came 
all present knew that the word he was to speak 
must ruin either Essex or Cecil. His answer was 



1 The counter-accusation against Essex, that he was in league with 
Spain, was, on the other hand, industriously spread about by Cecil and 
his party on equally slight foundation. Chamberlain writes in surprise 
(February 24) that none of these accusations were included in the 
charge. " I must say that one thing stickes much in men's mindes, 
that whereas divers preachers were commanded the Sonday before to 
deliver to the people, amongst his other treasons, that he had com- 
plotted with Tirone and was reconciled to the Pope . . . and that he 
had practised by the meanes of seminary priests with the Pope and the 
King of Spaine to be King of England, there was no such matter once 
mentioned in his arraignment." We know now that the two last of 
these loose accusations were untrue. They probably rested mainly 
upon the statements, already mentioned, of the secular priests anxious 
to injure the Jesuits. 



CECIL'S DECLARATION ' 437 

clear. " I never heard him (Cecil) speak words to 
that effect." On the contrary, he cited instances 
in which Cecil had referred to the King of Spain's 
claim as " impudent." Essex's sole good pretext for 
his rebellion was thus cut from under his feet. He 
apologised to Cecil, but all was of no avail now, for 
Knollys' evidence showed that his revolt was founded 
on a lie. Then Cecil, with passion unusual to him, 
made a pronouncement, which, if men could have 
read the hidden meaning of it, would have shown 
them the road he meant to take. " I have said," he 
exclaimed, " that the King of Spain is a competitor 
for the crown of England, and that the King of 
Scots is a competitor, and my Lord of Essex, I have 
said, is a competitor, for he would depose the Queen 
and call a parliament and so be King himself; but, 
as to my affection to advance a Spanish title to 
England, I am so far from it that my mind is asto- 
nished to think of it, and I pray God to consume 
me where I stand if I hate not the Spaniard as 
much as any man living." 

So whilst Essex and his friends went forth to 
their death, his rival cleared his position to the 
extent of completely disavowing the Infanta's candi- 
dature. Of the three claimants mentioned by him, 
one he thus vehemently repudiated, another stood 
before him a convicted and condemned traitor, and 
the third, James Stuart, was inferentially invited to 
bid for his support. And yet very few men under- 
stood this at the time. 



CHAPTER XlII 

The change in the succession question in consequence of the death of 
Essex — -The secret understanding between James and Cecil — 
James's new attitude towards the Catholics — Lord Montjoy in 
Ireland — Occupation of Derry — Disappointment of Tyrone and 
O'Donnell with Spain — La Cerda's mission to Ireland — Pre- 
parations for a new Spanish expedition to Ireland— Carew in 
Munster — Sailing of the expedition — O'SuUivan Beare — The 
Spaniards in Kinsale — The siege— The Spaniards isolated in 
Kinsale, Castlehaven, Dunboy, and Baltimore — Defeat of Tyrone 
— Capitulation of Kinsale — The O'Sullivans and Dunboy — O'Don- 
nell in Spain — Death of O'Donnell — Exodus of the O'Sullivans, 
pardon of Tyrone, and the pacification of Ireland. 

The disappearance of Essex from the scene com- 
pletely changed the position of the succession ques- 
tion. Essex had, in his secret correspondence with 
James, persistently represented Cecil as the King's 
enemy. It had always been the policy of the mode- 
rate party in England to promote a close friendship 
with Spain and Flanders, as a counterbalance to the 
traditional union of France with Scotland ; and the 
younger Cecil in this had followed the footsteps of 
his father. But that either of them had the slightest 
intention of subjecting England to Spanish interests, 
or of favouring Catholic supremacy, as Essex averred, 
is untrue. Yet whilst Essex, with his vindictive 
personal jealousy and political ambition, took the 
zealous Protestant party as the tool to serve his 
ends, Cecil was obliged to lean for support, as his 

father had done, upon the nobles and gentry whose 

438 



CFXIL'S PROBLEM 439 

sympathies were more or less avowedly Catholic, 
tempered mainly by a desire to retain the vast landed 
estates they held from the plunder of the Church. 
This party had many reasons for disliking the idea 
of a Scottish King. They had always looked upon 
Scotland as an inferior and semi-subject country, 
and upon Scotsmen as uncivilised boors of predatory 
and murderous habits ; the levelling tenets of the 
Scottish Presbyterian clergy filled them, moreover, 
with alarm, and many of them would frankly have 
preferred a pure Catholic domination under a native 
sovereign to the acknowledgment of James as their 
King. Cecil could not ajBford to do without the 
support of these men ; and yet he saw that the 
attempt to bring in any other sovereign than James 
on the Queen's death could only succeed if aided 
by foreign forces, which would mean civil war and 
the almost certain subversion of Protestantism. 

The problem before him was an extremely difficult 
one. He was now by far the most powerful man in 
England, — "King in effect," James called him in his 
instructions to the Earl of Mar ; but still his power 
in a great measure depended upon the Queen's good 
opinion of him and the support of the moderate 
party. For him to have openly favoured the King 
of Scots would have deeply offended Elizabeth, who 
was determined to have no successor legally acknow- 
ledged in her lifetime, and would also have driven 
the nobles, upon whom he depended, into schemes 
from which he would be excluded. The only course 
by which England could be saved from civil war 
and the Protestant Church preserved from destruc- 
tion was for Cecil secretly to reassure James of his 



440 TREASON AND PLOT 

fidelity and wean him from his Catholic dependence, 
whilst Cecil kept in close touch with his own party 
opposed to James, for the purpose of being able at 
the critical moment to subvert their plans/ This 
was the course that Cecil took, and in doing so 
he not only betrayed and ruined Catholics like 
his brother-in-law Cobham, but men of whom he 
was personally jealous, such as Ralegh and Grey, 
who were really stronger Protestants than he was 
himself. 

James's ambassadors, the Earl of Mar and Edward 
Bruce, lingered on their way south until after the 
head of Essex fell, and they did not reach London 
until March 1601. Their instructions were greatly 
modified from those originally suggested by Essex, 
but they were to still urge the Queen to acknow- 
ledge James's right, and more forcibly to threaten 
Cecil and his party with vengeance if they opposed 
him, whilst to Cecil especially they were to promise 
James's favour for his timely aid. The instructions 
were never carried out ; for the ambassadors, Bruce 
notably, were cleverer than their King. They saw 
in London how untrue had been Essex's libels upon 
the Cecil party of favouring the Spanish domination 
of England, and heard how Cecil had vehemently 
disavowed the King of Spain at Essex's trial, and 
they accordingly got into touch secretly with the 

1 Cecil on one occasion was afraid that James might be offended at 
his consorting with his enemies, but the King thus reassured him : " I 
hairtely praye you to assure youre self, that ye can have no dealing 
(j^uhatsumever with jewe, gentile or heathen, that ever will breede the 
least suspition in me of any crakke in your integretie towards me ; 
but by the contraire the further ye are upon thaire secreats, the more 
abil will I be to sitt as a godd upon all the imaginations of theire 
heartes " (Correspondence of James and Cecil, Camden Society). 



AGREEMENT OF JAMES AND CECIL 441 

all-powerful Secretary. Lord Henry Howard, who 
had been the go-between of Essex and James, appears 
to have been the first promoter of the arrangement ; 
and at a meeting between Cecil and the Scotsmen 
at Cecil's House in the Strand, the terms were agreed 
upon, and a cypher for the correspondence arranged. 
Cecil's conditions were that he would assure the 
peaceful succession to James if the latter would 
trust him, and cease all endeavours to obtain the 
recognition of his rights during the Queen's life. 
The correspondence between them was to be kept 
inviolably secret, and the extraordinary precaution 
was taken of sending it all by way of Ireland to 
divert suspicion.^ 

Our main concern at present with this most in- 
teresting correspondence is to mark how completely 
it changed James's policy towards the Catholics. He 
was now all amiability to the Queen, he ceased 
pestering her about the succession, and he discoursed 
quite eloquently of the foolishness and wicked- 
ness of any suggestion that he could ever turn 
his arms against England, which, as we have seen, 
he had been so eager to do a little while previously.^ 
All irritating embassies and activities with the 

^ This extraordinary correspondence, which was kept up until the 
Queen's death, is published entire by the Camden Society. Cecil, on 
one occasion at least, solemnly denied that any understanding existed 
between him and James, and to the last the secret was well kept. 

2 Nicholson, the English agent in Scotland, in a letter to Cecil at 
Hatfield, tells the story at this period of how James rebuked the Laird 
of Kinnard, in whose house he was staying on his progress. The Laird 
drank to the speedy union of the two kingdoms, and said he had forty 
muskets ready ; whereupon the King told him it was very wrong to 
wish such a thing, "but in Godes tyme." Kinnard was not in the 
secret, and no doubt wondered at the King's change of tone. 



44^ TREASON AND PLOT 

Catholic powers wore stoppod. and .hinios thonco- 
forwavd, with growing contidence in Cecirs strength 
{\nd wisdom, was content to await the death of the 
Queen rather than *' by climbing of hedges and 
ditches for pulling of unripe fruit to hazard the 
breaking of my neck." Incideurally the falsity and 
baseness of the man are shown in a vivid light, ^^*e 
have seen some of his cringing approaches to Spain 
and his devout professions of Catholicism when he 
thought such a course suited his interests : yet when 
Cecil asked his advice as to proceediug with the 
peace negotiations with Spain, the King strongly 
urged that no peace should be made, because the 
prospects of his succession might be prejudiced by 
the new friendship and by the possible presence in 
England of Spanish agents. " Jesuites. seminaxic 
priests, and that nible, quhairwith England is 
already toe muche infected, who would then re- 
sort there in snch snarmes as the katerpillers or 
iiyes did in ^Egipte." The King took this oppor- 
tunity of giving to Cecil an account of what he 
dignitied by the name of his religion. Warning him 
of the large number of priests who were allowed un- 
molested to remain in England, he says, *' I protest 
in Goddis presence, the daily increase that 1 hear of 
Popery in England, and the proiide vanterie that the 
Papists daily make ... is the cause that moves me 
to break forth in this digression." 

Cecil knew better than James that the English 
Catholics must not be driven to desperation at that 
juncture, and replied that he, too, detested priests 
and their doctrines, " only I confess that 1 shrinke 
to see them dye by dozens when at the last gasp 



jAMi'S'S NKW AI'infiDK 443 

they come ho Tjccrc loyally. , . . Jiut con trarl wine 
for tijat gorioratiori of vypars, the Jesuits, who make 
ijo more than ordinary merchandise of the blood and 
crowns of princes, 1 am so far from any compassion, 
as I would rather look to receive command from you 
to abstain than to prosecute." It is noteworthy, too, 
in this secret letter, that Cecil repudiates all ideas 
of toleration for the Catholics, and only asks that 
" some charitable relief should be used in prison or 
beyond sea" to those priests who have proved by 
acts their loyalty to the Government and to the 
claims of James, ^llius, so far as the King of Scots 
and Cecil are concerned, the plot is laid bare : both 
of them hated priests and repudiated toleration ; but 
for the furtherance of their aims, "loyal" Catholics 
were to be dealt with mildly, in oraer that they 
miglit expect toleration from a King who had so 
often avowed himself a Catholic, and whose utter 
baseness they did not yet know. 

The interests were thus gradually narrowing. 
James dropped out of the international intrigue ; 
the Spanish Council acknowledged the impossibility 
of invading either England or Scotland direct; and 
thenceforward Spain could only work through Ire- 
land, or through the PiUghsh Catholics, who disliked 
the idea of a Scottish king of England. When 
Montjoy had landed in Ireland early in 1600, he had 
found the whole country except the Pale and the 
walled towns in the hands of the rebels. Though 
the fastidious young lord had seen comparatively 
little fighting, which was the fault of the Queen 
rather than his own, he was a theoretical soldier of a 
high order, and seized at once upon the tactical needs 



444 TREASON AND PLOT 

of the situation. His army was small, not exceeding 
14,000 English infantry, mostly of very inferior 
quality, and some 1 500 horse, and he could not hope 
to march a sufficiently poATerful force by land through 
trackless Ulster to beat Tyrone in his own fastness. 
Munster was in different case. There the sturdy 
veteran. Sir George Carew, had a free hand, by 
severity and conciliation alternately, to bring the 
province back again to its obedience. The smaller 
chiefs were not overjoyed at the re-erection by 
Tyrone of the feudal princes, M'Carty More and 
Desmond, and the hold of the former, at least, over 
his clan was sufficiently precarious for him to han- 
ker after the recognition of the Queen's Government, 
who were inclined to favour his kinsman, Donnell, 
the chief chosen by the clansmen themselves before 
Tyrone's interference. By working upon the greed 
and ambition of these rival chieftains, and others in 
like case all over Munster, Carew managed before 
the end of the year to drive M'Carty and most of the 
other Munster chiefs into a sulky and shifty obedi- 
ence/ whilst the Sugan Earl of Desmond lurked 
in hiding with a few followers. 

But Montjoy could not deal thus with the north 
and west. The base of Tyrone's position was Lough 
Foyle, and that of O'Donnell, Ballyshannon, be- 
cause their supplies of munitions of war and other 

1 Carew writes to Cecil, January 15, 1601 (Irish State Papers, 208, 
uncaleudared), advocating a decided policy of conciliation with the 
Munster chiefs, with a general pardon. '• I do not know any one man 
of quality in Munster who was not bound by his oath upon the Sacra- 
ment to assist the rebellion, though some have more openly declared 
themselves than others."' Full particulars of Carew's campaign in 
Munster will be found in " Pacata Hibernia " and the Carew Calendars, 



MONTJOY IN IRELAND 445 

necessaries from abroad could reach them there alone 
with safety ; and only by means of a force conveyed 
by water could the English hope successfully to 
attack them. Whilst, therefore, Montjoy made a 
feint of marching against Ulster by land, a force of 
4000 foot, 200 horse, and 3 guns, under Sir Henry 
Docwra, sailed to Lough Foyle and succeeded in 
fortifying themselves at Derry (May 1600). The 
second part of the programme, the occupation of 
Ballyshannon on Donegal Bay, commanding the 
string of lakes which stretch right into Connaught, 
was not then possible, as Montjoy was obliged to 
return into Leinster to suppress the fresh risings of 
O'Byrnes and O'Tooles there. The seizure of Lough 
Foyle, however, struck a shrewd blow at Tyrone, for 
he dared not now take too large a force elsewhere, 
for fear of seeing his own principality overrun by 
the men from Derry ; ^ and Montjoy was able before 
the end of the year to bring much of Ireland, outside 
Ulster and Donegal, into at least nominal obedience. 
We have seen (page 407) that, notwithstanding 
the peremptory orders of Philip III. to the effect 
that a powerful force should be sent from Spain at 
once to aid the Irish rebels, all the summer and 
autumn of 1600 had been, frittered away by his 
officers, and by the end of November 1600 not even 
the small preliminary supply of money and biscuit 
had been despatched from Lisbon. Apparently, how- 
ever, owing to the renewed prayers of Tyrone's envoy, 

^ Fenton writes to Cecil on the ist January 1601 that "Tyrone is 
not a little gravelled to see Leinster in hazard to be gott from him '"" 
(Irish State Papers, 208, uncalendared). In the same letter Fenton says 
that Tyrone remains in the south part of his country " attending on 
Lough Foyle." 



446 TREASON AND PLOT 

Richard Owen, a great effort was then made, and 
early in December " two tall ships " sailed from 
Lisbon with Don Martin de la Cerda on board, 
taking with him 10,000 ducats in money and a 
quantity of weapons and munitions of war. As 
usual, the most exaggerated and alarming news w^as 
spread in Ireland as to the strength of the expedi- 
tion, but thanks to Teuton's desire to " beat out the 
truth " and to the report of his trusty spy, we are in 
a position to know exactly what happened^ when La 
Cerda sailed into Donegal Bay. There promptly 
came to greet him not only O'Donnell,""^ but Tyrone 
himself from Dungannon, O'Rourke, MacWilliam 
Bourke, O'Connor Sligo, Hugh Mostyn, and other 
chiefs. They had, they told the King's officer, 
already despaired of help from Spain, and O'Donnell, 
much as he was needed in Ireland, was on the point 
of himself sailing to make a last appeal to the 
King.^ The Queen's troops had overrun Ireland 
during the summer and the Catholic cause was 
reduced to the last extremity, they told La Cerda, 
but if their sovereign, King Philip, would send 
them, without fail, at least 5000 infantry before 
July they could hold out in Ulster and the west till 
then. 

When, however, Philip's two short Latin letters 



1 Fenton to Cecil, Januaiy 20, 1601 (Irish St-ate Papers, 208, uu- 
calendared). 

- Tyrone quarrelled with O'Donnell because he went on board the 
Spanish ship and had speech with La Cerda before Tyrone arrived at 
Donegal. The money, arms, &c., were divided, one half going to Tyrone, 
and the other half between the rest of the chiefs (Irish State Papers, 208, 
uncalendared). 

2 Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. (Simancas). 



SPAIN AND THE IRISH REBELS 447 

were opened with much ceremony and read by 
Tyrone and O'DonnelJ, disappointment again fell 
upon them. There were only a few lines in each 
letter of vague sympathy and exhortation to stand 
firm, with the same general promise of aid that had 
been made and broken so often before. " Where- 
upon O'Donnell was like a madd man, when he saw 
no kinde of news neither of men or money to 
come, and presentlie swore he would go himself to 
Spain, and would indeede have gone, if the captain 
of the Spaniards had suffered him. The Spaniard, 
seeing O'Donnell and the rest so angry, he told 
O'Donnell that he wronged himself, for, said he, you 
thinks that if the King send here an armie that he 
will let you or any one else know it ? No ! nor the 
Council of Spaine shall not know it. For so, may- 
hap, intelligence shall goe into England and so 
draw an armie against us, and this is the cause that 
none shall know what he meaneth to do." ^ With 
this comforting suggestion of La Cerda, the chiefs 
were only half satisfied, for of excuses they had had 
more than enough. So they settled to send back the 
Spanish Archbishop of Dublin and Tyrone's confessor, 
Father Chamberlain, to add their verbal prayers to 
the letters to the King which were carried by La 
Cerda. " But by God," swore Tyrone to Fenton's spy, 
" I have no longer any hope of help from the King 
of Spain, although, peradventure, he will send us a 
shippe with as much as he did now to feede us, for 
the King of France is at war with the Duke of 
Savoy, whom the King of Spaine will help, and so 
will have no men to spare this year." ^ 

J Irish State Papers, 208, uncalendared. 2 ji^^ 



448 TREASON AND PLOT 

Tyrone was truly in evil case just then. His 
cattle were now but few, and of corn, bread, or 
butter he had none. The strong English garrison 
at Lough Foyle was a sharp thorn thrust deeply into 
his side, and the policy of keeping an English ship 
or two on the Irish coast was stopping his supplies by 
sea. His communications with Munster were almost 
cut off'.^ John of Desmond, the fugitive Earl's 
brother, had come to Donegal to pray for aid from 
the chiefs, who agreed to send 0'E.ourke's brother 
with looo men to the Earl's rescue,^ whilst Montjoy 
now had Leinster well in hand, and the Pale was 
safe from incursions. James Stuart, moreover, no 
longer smiled upon the rebel chief, and it must have 
been evident to Tyrone that his only hope of ulti- 
mate success now lay in the questionable arrival of 
powerful aid from Spain. The bulls he had received 
from the Pope, from which such great results were 
expected, had fallen flat, for the real root of the 
movement, in the case of the chiefs, was territorial 
rather than religious, and they held (when it suited 
them) that Rome had no power to dissolve their 
allegiance to their sovereign, the Queen of England, 
who made no serious attempt, moreover, to interfere 
with their religious observances.^ 

1 The Spanish Archbishop, writing to the Sugan Earl of Desmond, 
who was in hiding, bidding him farewell (January 1 3), says he should 
have gone personally to him, but he could not go without an army 
(" Pacata Hibernia"). 

^ This desperate attempt of Tyrone to force a way down to Munster 
was frustrated by Carew, who reinforced Limerick and held the line of 
the Shannon (" Pacata Hibernia"). 

^ It is related in " Pacata Hibernia " that certain Munster Catholics 
sent to Rome at this time priests to purchase from the Pope absolution 
for abstaining from helping the Catholic cause. 



CRISIS OF THE IRISH CAUSE 449 

The Irish cause, therefore, was now at its turning- 
point. If aid came from Spain promptly and strong, 
Ulster, at all events, might retain its autonomy under 
O'Neil and the old Irish tradition ; if it came not, 
then Tyrone must make the best terms he could with 
the Queen's Government. 

La Cerda, with the Spanish Archbishop and the 
Irish chieftains' letters, arrived in Spain towards the 
end of January 1601 at a favourable juncture, for the 
war between France and Savoy had just come to an 
end, and the Spanish infantry that had been raised 
to help Savoy was not now needed. The Archbishop 
pleaded eloquently for the Irish. "The country," 
he said, " and especially Tyrone and O'Donnell and 
the rest of the Catholics, now stood in imminent 
peril, and there was a danger of the entire extinction 
of the faith and obedience to the Church which they 
had hitherto upheld with so much bravery and blood- 
shed." He submitted the " grave prejudice which 
would thereby be suffered by Christendom at large, 
and expressed deep sorrow that, after they had ex- 
posed themselves to so much jeopardy in the service 
of God, and so many promises had been sent to them, 
they should be thus abandoned by a powerful and 
Catholic monarch, upon whom, after God, they had 
founded all their hopes." 1 These appeals touched 
Philip in his most tender points, namely, his Catholicity 
and his pride ; and once more the whole subject was 
turned over to his Council of State for consideration 
and report. Again they told him that it was his 
obvious duty to support the Irish Catholics ; and 
they thought that in the circumstances 6000 men 

^ Simancas MSS., Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 

2 P 



450 TREASON AND PLOT 

might be sent instead of the ^ooo asked for by 
Tyrone. " Stores and mnnitions should be made 
ready at once, for they have not even bread to eat 
in Ireland. E^ervthinii: shonld be done with i^reat 
secrecy ; the men shonld be qnietly concentrated in 
Lisbon, and an increased qnantity of biscnit ordered." 
Snflicient money shonld be sent with the expedi- 
tion to last six mouths — 200,000 ducats, which sum 
it was supposed already existed in Lisbon — and 
105,000 ducats more must be raised for fitting out 
the tieet.^ In accordance with the recommendation 
previously made, Irish and other ships in Spanish 
southern ports w ere seized for tlie service,'^ and all 
the preparations were detailed for the sending to 
Ireland, at last, of a powerful force to strike a blow 
for the Catholic cause. •• 

In the meanwhile, alarming news of the threat- 
ening Armada came to Ireland and to England. 

* Febnum 9, 1601. The Council to Philip. Simancas, Spanish 
Calendar, vol. iv. 

- Irish State Papei-s, 208, iincalendared. 

• Ibarra pivvidod the following estimate of the cost of the expedi- 
tion : — 

Dm-ats. 

^laintenauce of 4500 men for two months . 40,000 
One wage for 4000 new^ soldiers to be shipped . 20,000 
Two wage^ for veteran oavjUry . . . . \ 2,000 
Shipping and keep of men ..... 1 7,000 
Two wages for Irish infantry .... 16,000 
It is most important that the troops should be kept 
in good order and prevented from molesting the 
natives, so they mxist be paid punctually. For 
this and other needs there must be taken with 
the expedition 200,000 



Total, 305,000 

The remaining 1 500 or 2000 men were to be provided for in Lisbon, 
presumably by the Portuguese Exchequer. Twenty caravels were to 



STILL ANOTHER ARMADA 451 

Timothy Williams, a Plymouth raariDer who had 
licen a prisoner in Spain, escaped from Corunna and 
told of the vast collection of stores ; a merchant 
arriving in Ireland from Spain said that 9000 men 
were in Lishon destined for Ireland.^ Montjoy 
clamoured for more men and stores, especially for 
Munster ; Carew caught the shifty M'Carty More 
corresponding with the rebels and haled him to 
prison (July 1601); the Sugan Karl of Desmond 
was tracked to his last cave by the White Knight, 
and fell into English hands (May 1601);'^ there was 
no great Munster chief now to lead the province, 
and all men knew that the final trial of strength 
was coming w?iich should make Tyrone a semi- 
independent vassal of Spain, or a beaten traitor at 
the mercy of Elizabeth. Through the summer the 
alarming news of a great Spanish fleet in prepara- 
tion came. Sometimes Cecil believed that the desti- 
nation was Flanders, and once there came in July 
a false alarm that the Spaniards were already in the 
Channel, where there were no English ships ready 
to resist them but a few foul little vessels under 
Sir Richard Leveson ; but the flocking of priests to 
Ireland, the rising hopes of the rebels, and the irre- 
pressible talk on the quays of Lisbon, convinced the 
Anglo-Irish governors, at all events, that the Spaniards 
vs^ere to strike at them. But at what point? Carew 
persisted in his belief that Munster would be at- 

Tje fri;ig}ited (those seized in the ports doubtless) at a cost of 140,000 
ducats, to bring troops from the Azores. The accounts are extremely 
-detailed, and the above is a mere abstract of them. 

^ Harris to Cecil, March 9, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland to Cecil, 
February 9. Irish State Papers, 208, uncalendared. 

^ A most quaint and curious account of James Fitz-Tliomas's cajjture 
is in vol. i. of " Pacata Hibernia." 



452 TREASON AND PLOT 

tacked, either Cork or Waterford, and the aged 
Lord Admiral was of the same opinion. Carew, 
therefore, with his quite insufficient forces, made 
what dispositions he could to hold Cork against an 
enemy, whilst he still kept back an advance of the 
rebels southward by grimly clinging to Limerick and 
the line of the Shannon, Montjoy was determined, 
if possible, to strike a blow at Ulster itself before 
the arrival of the Spaniards, and though he got but 
little help from England, he did nobly. In July he 
captured the fort on the Blackwater, which formed 
the door to Ulster from the Pale ; for Tyrone dared 
not divert his force from Lough Foyle, or Docwra at 
Derry would push down to Ballyshannon and so 
divide Tyrone from O'Donnell. Though Docwra was 
unable to reach so far south as that, he did the next 
best thing possible to him, namely, to make a dash 
at O'Donnell's capital of Donegal, which he captured 
and held in August. 

Thus month after month passed and still no 
Spanish Armada appeared. By the middle of Sep- 
tember a fine flying squadron of seven new galleons 
had been fitted out in England to supplement Leve- 
son's little Channel fleet, and the fear of a Spanish 
descent upon England, which still haunted the minds 
of the men who had fought the Armada of 1588, 
grew less alarming as England stood on her guard. 

In the meanwhile affairs were proceeding in Spain 
in the usual inept fashion. When Philip had again 
accepted the advice of his council to send the fleet 
to Ireland (February 1601), he had "entrusted this 
matter to my confessor, as it is so much for God's 
service, in order that he may see everything recom- 



THE FINAL ARMADA 453 

mended here carried out with all possible speed." 
And yet, although the soldiers were mostly mustered 
in Lisbon in February, it was late in August 1601 
before the Council could advise Philip that all was 
ready for a start. Two flyboats had been sent to 
Killibegs during the summer ^ carrying messages to 
the chiefs as to the aid they might expect, and to 
take counsel as to its destination ; but almost to the 
hour of sailing of the fleet a difference of opinion 
existed as to the most suitable place for it to attack. 
Some of the Irish thought it should go to Ulster, 
some to Drogheda, but it was finally considered 
that the nearness of Munster to Spain gave it an 
advantage over other parts of Ireland, and Cork was 
selected as the port of debarkation. 

Early in September all was finally ready. There 
were thirty-three ships, great and small, for the con- 
veyance of troops, besides storeships, flyboats, and 
victuallers. Don Juan del Aguila, a famous Spanish 
soldier, who had held Brittany for so long against 
France and England combined, was in chief com- 
mand of the troops, of which there were nearly 
5000, besides six pieces of siege artillery and a 
large quantity of stores. The shipping was under 
the command of Don Diego Brochero as admiral, 
and a fine old sailor, Pedro de Zubiaur, as vice- 
admiral. Carew stood ready at Cork, determined to 
fight as became his name, though the Government 
in London had helped him but little. On Sep- 
tember 13 a swift pinnace, under Captain Love of 

^ One of these vessels was very nearly caught by CaiDtain Plessing- 
ton of the Tramontana, but she escaped by her superior sailing powers 
{Irish State Papers, 209, uncalendared). 



454 TREASON AND PLOT 

Crookhaven, brought him the news that the Spanish 
fleet, with wind astern, was out of the Bay and sail- 
ing straight for Ireland ; and that day, and the next, 
and the next, the stout President of Munster looked 
hourly for the iuyaders who came not. On the fourth 
day the wind changed to the north, and he knew 
that, whilst that wind blew, Cork was safe from any 
Spanish fleet that sailed. Montjoy in the meanwhile 
had pushed south as far as Atliy, and thither Carew 
rode to concert with his chief the plan of defence ; 
but fatigue and sickness oyertook him before he 
reached Athy, and Montjoy found him lying ill near 
Kilkenny. Whilst they were there conferring, the 
wind changed to the east, and on the 23rd a breath- 
less messenger came from Sir Charles Wilmot at 
Cork to say that the Spanish fleet had two days 
before endeayoured to make the haibour, and had 
failed, whereupon the invaders had sailed towards 
Kinsale. Munster was the place of danger ; and 
Montjoy and Carew determined to concentrate every 
available man to face the foe there, leaving Dublin 
and the Pale to look after itself till the more press- 
ing peril had passed. 

The danger was again not so great as it looked. 
Spanish organisation was still wretched, and Spanish 
hearts were no longer in the task. When the 
northern gale had struck the fleet ofi" Ushant, the 
vice-flagship of Zubiaur, with eight other vessels 
carrying 650 soldiers and most of the stores, had 
been driven back crippled to Corunna, and another 
of the largest ships, full of men, had straggled, and 
had been captured at the mouth of the Channel by 
an English privateer. Three more vessels, with 700 



INVASION OF IRELAND 455 

men on board, fell off too far to leeward, to make 
either Cork or Kinsale, and sought shelter in O'Dris- 
coU's harbour of Baltimore. The main expedition, 
therefore, that sailed into the harbour of Kinsale 
(October i, 1601, N.S.) brought only about 3000 
effective soldiers under Don Juan del Aguila. The 
town was garrisoned by one English company ; the 
defences were obsolete and the place untenable ; so 
the Spaniards were allowed to land without opposi- 
tion. Don Juan was a chivalrous soldier of the old 
school, brave as a lion, but thinking little of sailors ; 
whilst Brochero, the admiral, like most of the men 
of his profession, believed that, though their function 
was conveyance and not fighting, seamen were, in 
their way, as dignified as men-at-arms. The demo- 
ralisation that afflicted the Spanish service also 
touched him ; and when Aguila requested him not 
to sail away until he had sent the food stores up the 
river to the town, Brochero replied that he could 
not wait to land the food, and simply cast the muni- 
tions anyhow, without order or account, into the 
ooze at the mouth of the harbour, " where they were 
all ill-handled and wet as if the enemy had been 
already playing with their artillery on the ships ; " 
and so Brochero sailed away, leaving Don Juan del 
Aguila with his little army, and only two field-pieces 
and two demi-cannon, to do the best he could.^ 
He endeavoured to tranquillise the townspeople, 

1 Don Juan reported that the rest of the cannon was not landed, as 
he had not ammunition for it, much of the latter being spoilt by the 
wet. Philippus O'Sullevan (" Historiee Catholica Iberniae ") says that, 
from the first landing of the force, dissensions existed between the 
Spanish officers, and between Aquila and the Spanish Archbishop of 
Dublin, who accompanied him. 



456 TREASON AND PLOT 

assuring them personally and by proclamation that 
he would use them as friends and brothers; "yet, 
withal, he findeth no assistance from them, neither 
dare they declare themselves." The place, with its 
crumbling mediaeval walls, was commanded by hills 
on all sides, but a small peninsula jutting out in 
front of the town would make a good point from 
which the entrance from the sea could be de- 
fended. This, however, Don Juan decided that he 
had not sufficient men to effect, and to defend the 
town from the land-side as well. Many of his 
soldiers were boys and recruits, who began to skulk 
and evade as soon as they landed. This, however, 
he presently stopped, and his skill and firmness in- 
fused some spirit and courage into them. Still it 
was evident to him that in this exposed little town, 
with a small isolated force, short of food and stores,^ 
he could do nothing effectual until he had formed a 
junction with Tyrone. Montjoy he knew was with 
over 4000 English troops at Cork, only sixteen miles 
away, and there was nothing to prevent the Viceroy 
from pushing between Kinsale and the forces of the 
northern rebels. Aguila, therefore, could only send 
off beseeching messages to Spain for reinforcements 
and supplies, whilst the English troops gradually drew 
around him. Swift runners and pinnaces, too, were 
sent by Don Juan and the Spanish Archbishop to 

' One of the first acts of the English was to burn all the food within 
five miles of Kinsale and seize the cattle (" Pacata Hibernia "). As we 
have seen, the Spaniards had always been told that they need bring no 
horses, but only harness. The former, however plentiful they might be 
in Ulster, were non-existent in Kinsale, and the harness had drifted 
back to Spain. Aguila had therefore no cavalry with which to prevent 
the English destruction. 



THE SPANIARDS IN MUNSTER 457 

warn Tyrone and O'Donnell of his coming. But 
they were afar oflf ; the English troops held Derry 
and Donegal, whilst Limerick and the Shannon 
in English hands lay between the rebels and the 
Spaniards, and before the chiefs could join Del 
Aguila, the force of the Lord Deputy would have 
to be utterly defeated. 

The Munster chiefs saw, like the rest of the 
world, that this was the struggle which was to de- 
cide once for all whether the Catholic supremacy 
should be restored or not. The fates had decreed 
that at the critical point all the chances leant to the 
side of England and Protestantism : but Catholic 
churchmen had not been exhorting and preaching to 
Irishmen in vain for so many years, and the Munster 
men began to simmer into fervour for the cause, as 
they thought, of God and Ireland. The great men, 
M'Carty More and Desmond, were safe under lock 
and key, offering to fight against their own country- 
men and swearing unalterable loyalty to the Queen 
in return for a recognition of their rank and posses- 
sions, but the smaller chiefs, all of whom had taken 
the oath of obedience, were impelled for many be- 
sides religious reasons to think of the future. Many 
of them held their lands, as English nominees, 
against the hereditary claimants under the Irish law, 
and if they sided with the English now, a rebel 
victory would mean their ejection and ruin. Such 
a man as this was Donal O'Sullivan Beare, Lord of 
Beare and Bantry, whose importance had been of 
late years enormously increased by the suppression 
of his prince, M'Carty More, and by the patronage 
of the English, who had dispossessed his uncle Owen 



458 TREASON AND PLOT 

in his favour. He, like most of his neighbours, had 
always been effusively loyal, though some of his 
kinsmen had risen up and joined the Fitzgeralds in 
the Desmond wars. This chief, with his magnificent 
harbour of Bantry and his apparently impregnable 
castle of Dunboy, did not wish to offend the English, 
but he was even more loath to lose his rank and 
possessions at the hands of Tyrone. So from Dun- 
boy a secret message went to Del Aguila to say that 
a thousand sturdy clansmen, fully armed, were ready, 
and a thousand more if arms were sent to them, to 
march under their chief to check the advance of 
Montjoy until Tyrone and O'Donnell could join the 
Spaniards. The Spanish commander could only 
reply sadly that his arms had drifted back to Spain 
in Zubiaur's ships, and he had none to spare. He 
was, moreover, ignorant as yet of Tyrone's plan of 
campaign ; and whilst thanking 0' Sullivan, he ad- 
vised him for the moment to stand firm but not to 
declare himself/ 

In the meanwhile Carew and Montjoy worked 
like the heroes they were. The artillery and stores 
had to be brought from Dublin, and this delayed 
them for weeks before a regular siege of Kinsale 
could be undertaken ; but skirmishes and desperately 
resisted sallies of the Spaniards took place almost 
nightly, for the English force of about 4000 men 
were now close around the town. One of the 
victualling ships, under Captain Button, and a 
pinnace called the Moon belonging to the Queen, 
were the only vessels as yet available for blockade ; 
and once they made an ineffectual attempt with 

1 Philippus O'Sullevau. 



THE SIEGE OF KINSALE 459 

their little guns, as they lay in the harbour mouth, 
to capture the Castle of Rincorran, which commanded 
the entrance to Kinsale on the east side of the 
channel. At length, however, towards the end of 
October, the siege artillery and stores were landed in 
a little haven to the east of Kinsale towards Cork, 
and the siege of the town began in earnest. The 
first task of the English was to reduce the Castle of 
Rincorran, where Aguila had posted 1 50 men with a 
promise that they should be reinforced if the place 
were attacked. The English had only two faulty 
culverins for their battery, and numberless mishaps 
befell them before they could be effectually used. 
Again and again they broke down, and during the 
first night of the attack Aguila endeavoured to re- 
inforce the castle by means of boats from the town. 
In this, however. Captain Button, the sturdy victualler, 
who was on the alert, frustrated them by means of 
his popguns of demi-sakers. 

On the second day of the cannonade Carew lost 
patience at the poor practice, and laid and worked 
the guns himself. Aguila seeing that the fort must 
fall if not relieved, made a bold attempt to thrust 
reinforcements into it by land. A desperate little 
battle ensued, in which many fell on both sides before 
the Spaniards were driven back.^ The gallant little 

^ It should be explained that the harbour of Kinsale lies inside the 
serpentine mouth of the Bandon, which opens into the ocean towards 
the south. A little way inside the river suddenly turns west, forming 
a peninsula in front of the town, which lies on a slope facing the east- 
The Castle of Eincorran was on the east side of the outer channel, facing 
the peninsula towards the west, so that to relieve it by land from the town 
a detour had to be made on the north side, and it was here that the 
battle in question was fought on October 31st, in which the Spaniards 
were driven back. 



460 TREASON AND PLOT 

garrison of Rincorran did their best to make terms, 
but Montjoy insisted upon complete surrender and 
this the Spanish captain, Paez de Chivijo, refused 
unless he might retain his sword and return to Kin- 
sale, liis own men threatened to throw him over 
the walls for his obstinacy, and many of them escaped 
by the waterside ; but by the ist November all was 
over at Eincorran ; Paez surrendered his sword to 
Montjoy. and Aguila now found friendly access to 
him cut otf by laud and sea. In the meanwhile, 
both England and Spain had awakened to the im- 
portant crisis that had been reached. 'J'he troops 
to be sent from England were increased from 2000 
to S'^00. but unfortunately mariners were hard to 
get, for all sea service except privateering for plunder 
was unpopular. Thus the soldiers stood Avaiting, 
and it was quite the end of October before the flying 
squadron of six royal galleons with merchantmen 
and transports sailed out of the Thames, crowded 
with troops, under Sir Eichard Leveson. Then bad 
weather, head winds, and accidents delayed them in 
the Channel, and it was the 15th November before 
the naval force reached the offing of Kinsale with the 
reinforcements which placed Montjoy in a position of 
at least numerical equality with the enemy. 

Tardy as had been the English naval preparations, 
those of the Spaniards were fortunately more lagging 
still. Zubiaur's squadron had to be refitted and re- 
inforced, and, notwithstanding Aguila's urgent and 
repeated messages, did not sail from Corunna until 
the 7tli December (N.S.). The force was a strong 
one, consisting of ten ships with S29 foot-soldiers 
and a large quantity of food and stores. Again mis- 



THE SPANIARDS AT KINSALE 461 

fortune or want of skill dogged the Spaniards from the 
first. One of Zubiaur's ships was wrecked going out 
of port, and he lost sight of three others in the bad 
weather that followed, one of which was wrecked on 
the coast of Brittany, one returned to Galicia, and the 
third was captured off Kinsale by the English. With 
the six ships remaining Zubiaur approached Kinsale, 
but learning from Irish fishermen that the mouth of 
the harbour was full of English men-of-war, he sailed 
off to the convenient port of Castlehaven to the west. 
iSir Finnan O'Driscoll and his sons had always been 
loyal to the Queen, like their neighbour, O'Sullivan, 
but this fresh force of Spaniards arriving in their 
country turned the scale. Tyrone and O'Donnell 
were hastening south with the rebel army, Carew's 
attempt to intercept the latter at Cashel with a flying 
column having failed, either by reason of O'Don- 
nell's better knowledge of the ground having enabled 
him to slip past the English into West Munster, or 
from Carew's disinclination to engage the Irish in an 
action, of which, from the fii-st, he disapproved. 

There had also drifted into the O'Driscoll port of 
Baltimore three of the vessels of the original Brochero 
squadron, which had remained there isolated but un- 
molested. Now that Zubiaur's fresh reinforcement 
had arrived in their country, it seemed wise for the 
O'Driscolls and the O'Sullivans to throw overj their 
loyalty and to rally openly to the Catholic side. The 
fortresses of Castlehaven and Baltimore were solemnly 
handed over by their owners to the Spanish officers 
for King Philip. The news ran like wildfire through 
Munster, and from bog and mountain shaggy clans- 
men flocked down to their chiefs to fight for faith 



462 TREASON AND PLOT 

aud Ireland against the Sassenach. O'Sullivan Beaie, 
to be denied no longer, tendered the submission of 
his lands and castles to the King of Spain/ Zubi- 
aur armed 700 Irishmen, whom he despatched with 
200 Spaniards to join O'Donnell, and then putting 
Spanish garrisons into Castlehaven, Baltimore, and 
Dunboy, he sent pinnaces Hying to Spain to beg for 
powerful reinforcements. 

Here were three little isolated Spanish forces, 
whose very existence depended upon the victory of 
the rebel chiefs over the English. With an in- 
credible want of skill or good fortune, each separate 
Spanish expedition had got itself bottled up in a 
different port, and practically beleaguered by land 
and sea. In the meanwhile, the siege of Kinsale, 
whither Garew had now returned from his abortive 
attempt to intercept O'Donnell, proceeded briskly ; 
the fleet under Leveson co-operating effectually with 
Montjoy. Two of the naval guns were landed, and 
forced the surrender of the entrenched fort on the 
peninsula facing the town that defended the inner 
harbour, and this enabled some of the ships to warp 

^ O'Sullivan wrote a famous letter to Philip III. ou December 20, on 
the occasion of his voluntary submission to the Spaniards. After setting 
forth his own noble lineage and the racial connection between Ireland 
and Spain, ho continues : " For these considerations and for many other 
commendable causes, I bequeath and otter in humbleness of mind and 
heart, my own person, with all my forces, perpetually to serve your 
Majesty, not only in Ireland, but in any other place where it may please 
you. I commit, also, my wife and my children, my manors, towns^ 
country, and lands, and my haven of Dunboy, next under God to the 
protection, keeping, and defence or commerce of your Majesty, to be in 
your hands and at youi- disposal." This letter was intercepted, and 
although O'Sullivan was afterwards anxious to be reconciled to the 
English, he was never forgiven. As will be told, he became a great 
Spanish noble, and lived and died in Spain, as did most of his kinsmen. 



FIGHT AT CASTLEHAVEN 463 

inside, facing the houses of the town, and to add 
their battery to that of Montjoy from the land- side. 
At length, by the end of November, the lower town 
had become quite untenable, and the Spaniards were 
driven to the trenches on the farther side, and higher 
up the slope. Aguila looked, and looked in vain, 
for the coming of Zubiaur, or for the descent of the 
rebel chiefs. A great number of his men were sick, 
and all were famished ; but they fought well, sally- 
ing night after night and charging the English 
batteries, sometimes almost successfully. In the 
midst of this came the news of Zubiaur's arrival 
at Castlehaven (December 11, N.S.), and thither 
Leveson hastened with four galleons and two mer- 
chantmen of his squadron to engage the Spanish 
ships. The action that ensued is told variably by 
the two sides. Zubiaur himself reported that the 
English landed artillery to attack him ; but that he 
drew oflf and sank the Queen's flagship, greatly 
damaging the others, though two of his own ships 
sank. Philippus O'Sullevan goes beyond this, and 
says that 501 Englishmen were killed, 60 being 
knocked over by one shot, as they sat at table : 
whilst Leveson in his account to the Lord Deputy, 
claims to have driven the Spanish flagship on to the 
rocks, that another ship sank, and that two more 
Spaniards ran aground. Leaving Zubiaur with one, 
or at most two ships, Leveson then returned to 
Kinsale and told his story, whilst Zubiaur waited 
and prayed for succour in vain. 

But still the rebel chiefs came not. Don Juan 
del Aguila wrote to them on December 2S, al- 
most indignantly. He expected them long before, 



464 TREASON AND PLOT 

he said : the English were weak and weary, and a 
blow struck now would be effectual. He spoke 
truly. The march southward of Tyrone had drawn 
all Munster into revolt behind him. Montjoy's army 
was worn and reduced by the winter siege ; the 
small English squadron of galleons at Kinsale was 
quite inadequate to blockade the whole coast of 
Munster ; and another Spanish expedition under 
Don Martin de la Cerda was known to be ready to 
sail from Lisbon. With a little good luck and 
ability on the part of the Spaniards, Tyrone might 
at this juncture have turned the tide of events and 
have made England Catholic. But it was not to be. 
The weather was bad ; O'Donnell lagged on the way 
for Tyrone's coming; and it was January i, 1602 
(N.S.), before the advance guard of the rebel army 
appeared to the north on the hills overlooking Kin- 
sale and the English position. Tyrone's plan was to 
thrust the Castlehaven Spaniards and Irishmen, who 
had joined him, round the extreme right (or western) 
flank of the besieging line, where the Irish levies 
were placed, into Kinsale, which he thought might 
make Aguila strong enough to come out and join 
hands with him. Intercepted letters and willing 
Irish spies informed Montjoy of the plan,^ and when, 
before dawn on January 2, 1602, the Spaniards and 
Munster Kerns crept round and made their attack, 

1 In " Pacata Hibernia," a somewhat significant account is given of one 
of the sources of Montjoy's information. Two days before the battle, 
Brian MacHugh Ogue MacMahon, Lord of Monaghan, sent a messenger 
to ask Montjoy for old acquaintance sake to send him a bottle of aqua- 
vita, which the Viceroy did. Either out of gratitude, or from a desire 
to hedge, or else because he dreaded the overlordship of O'Neil more 
than that of the Queen, MacMahon sent Montjoy a hint next day,- 
upon which the latter was prompt to act. 



ROUT OF TYRONE 465 

they found themselves outnumbered by the English 
whom Montjoy had stationed there since the previous 
evening. Out of the 200 Spaniards 140 were killed 
in the surprise ; and as they fled headlong, Tyrone, 
still in the dark, ordered his forces to draw off, his 
intention being to attack again with his main bod)'- 
by daylight. As soon as Montjoy learnt this, he ad- 
vanced rapidly and fell unexpectedly upon Tyrone's 
right flank as he retreated. The Irish were already 
demoralised by the confused retreat in the dark, and 
were seized with panic. The whole six thousand of 
them fled for life, being slaughtered without mercy 
when they were caught. Fifteen hundred died thus, 
and the next day every prisoner, not already sacri- 
ficed, was hanged. Tyrone was wounded, and was 
carried in a litter up into Ulster, and O'Donnell, 
with Redmond Burke, Hugh Mostyn, and the few 
remaining Spaniards, managed to reach Castlehaven. 
Heart-broken, panic-stricken, and desperate, he 
could only pray Zubiaur to carry them to Spain at 
once, with the dire news that all was lost ; that the 
heretic cause was victorious, and that Spain must 
put forth the whole of her might now, or abandon 
her dream for ever. 

The news fell upon Spain like a thunder-clap, 
and for once aroused the King and his Council to 
some activity. "Your Majesty's prestige is at 
stake," said the latter, "and yet there is no means 
of sending effective and prompt aid, for want of 
ships, arms, and men, everything being scarce and 
short." But still, they said, something must be done 
to keep up the war in Ireland, or the English would 
descend upon Spain and destroy them all. Every 

2 G 



466 TREASON AND PLOT 

man must be taken from the garrisons and sent to 
Ireland ; money, stores, and arms must be collected 
from every point and at any sacrifice. Knighthoods, 
increased pay, and rewards must be promised to 
officers to prompt them to activity. Nobles and 
bishops must arm their vassals ; Italy and Savoy must 
be scoured for war materials and men ; all the 
galleys must come from Naples for the defence of 
Spain ; ships must be sent to warn the Indies, and the 
King himself must write a letter to Aguila, urging 
him to stand firm until help reaches him, that at 
least will allow him to leave Ireland with honour.^ 
O'Donnell, deploring, beseeching, and exhorting, was 
propitiated with flattery and presents ; but when he 
asked that the chief command of the new expedition 
should be given to the Adelantado, he was told that 
the latter was too great a personage for such a force 
as could be sent. In the tornado of fright that was 
passing over the Spanish Administration, the most 
extravagant advice was given. The Adelantado 
himself, unpractical as usual, stormed at the policy 
of sending aid by driblets : " which will only prolong 
the agony, and let the patient die after all." If only 
a great Armada had been sent under his command, 
as he advised, all would have been well ; and even 
now it might be done. Commissary-General Con- 
treras was for raising an army of 14,000 men for 
Ireland, half of whom might be Germans and Wal- 
loons shipped from Dunkirk. The King's confessor. 
Father Cordoba, thought they should be prepared for 
the worst ; but, as the poverty-stricken treasury could 
not hope to provide for the danger at all points, 

1 The letter is printed in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



THE FALL OF KINSALE 467 

*'the most important of all preparations will be to 
appease the anger of Almighty God, provoked by the 
vices and sins so prevalent in this country. We 
must therefore earnestly seek a remedy by mending 
our ways of life and by constant prayer." ^ In the 
midst of all this panic and despairing effort, another 
blow fell. The five ships loaded with men, arms, 
and stores, which had sailed from Lisbon late in 
December, under Martin de la Cerda, were driven 
back again by storm, the flagship alone having reached 
within sight of Kinsale. There she had captured 
eleven Irish boatmen, from whom it was learnt that 
the harbour was full of English ships and the town 
in possession of the Viceroy ; one of the sailors 
having that very day seen Don Juan del Aguila 
dining in public with the Queen's representative. 
La Cerda waited to hear no more, but sped off to 
Spain under every rag of sail. 

This news somewhat altered the plans. It was 
clear that matters could not wait until a great force 
was mustered from all quarters, and orders were 
given that La Cerda's squadron, with four more ships, 
should muster in Corunna, ready to sail with all the 
stores and men then ready, as soon as news came 
from Ireland of the real condition of affairs. In the 

^ Colonel Semple's idea at this time was to raise the number of men 
for Ireland to 6000, and to send an embassy to Scotland in return for 
his brother's mission to Spain in the previous year. The " envoy was 
to be secretly instructed to assist the Catholics and endeavour to induce 
them to obtain possession of the little Prince (Henry). If this be done 
and he be married to the daughter of the Duke of Savoy, the Catholic 
faith may be restored in Scotland." Semple also thought that the 
West Highlanders might be induced to side with Spain, "as they are 
greatly devoted to the Spaniards, from whom they boast their descent " 
(Spanish Calendar, vol. iv.). 



468 TREASON AND PLOT 

meanwhile Aguila, shut up in Kinsale,had been grow- 
ing desperate. Again and again he tried to cut his 
way out, but ineffectually ; and finally, on the last day 
of the year 1601 (O.S,), the Spanish general prayed 
for a parley. To Sir William Godolphin, who met 
him, he expressed his disgust at the Irish, being 
" not only weak and barbarous, but, as he feared, 
perfidious friends,"^ and finding Montjoy a gentle- 
manly foe, he offered terms of composition. If he 
might depart honourably for Spain, with all his 
people, arms, and stores, he was willing to surrender 
to the English the garrisons now occupied by the 
Spaniards ; but otherwise, he said, with a bit of true 
Spanish swagger, they "would rather bury them- 
selves alive, and endure a thousand deaths, than to 
give way to one article that should savour of baseness 
or dishonour." Aguila, with his 2000 good fighting 
men, might doubtless, as he said, have held out 
for a considerable time longer, but he plainly con- 
fessed that, after Tyrone's behaviour, the Irish were 
not worth fighting for. For the English the pro- 
posal was distinctly advantageous, since Castlehaven, 
Dunboy, and Baltimore, as well as Kinsale, were to 
be delivered to them without further fighting, and 
the voluntary retirement of the Spanish invading 
force would be an object-lesson more significant to 
the world than their destruction by superior num- 
bers. Articles were accordingly soon agreed upon 
for the Spaniards to leave, with all their property, 
peacefully in English ships bound for Spain, of 
which they were to pay the freight. 

^ One of his officers went further : " Surely," he said, " Christ never 
died for this people." 



SURRENDER OF AGUILA 469 

Whilst the arrangements were being made for the 
transport of the Spaniards, Aguila and his principal 
officers lived with the Lord-Deputy in Cork, and 
one of the Spanish pinnaces sent from Corunna to 
carry the King's letter already mentioned, and others 
to his general, came into Bantry. Don Juan del 
Aguila was now at peace with England, and techni- 
cally had a right to receive his letters without 
hindrance; but we are told that Montjoy's "heart 
itched " to know what was in them, and Carew, who 
thought everything fair in war against the Irish, 
arranged to have the courier waylaid and robbed 
as if by thieves, and the letters were accordingly 
stolen and brought to Carew whilst Aguila was at 
dinner with him. The Spaniard, when he heard of 
the treatment of his courier, was indignant and 
" vehemently suspicious ; " but good George Carew 
lied to him like a patriot, and offered a large reward 
for the discovery of his own instruments. The letters 
may now be read in " Pacata Hibernia," and that 
of the King in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv., and con- 
firm the account of the active preparations in Spain 
to help the beleaguered force, which I have already 
given from the Simancas manuscripts ; but, as we 
have seen, the letters came too late, and Don Juan 
del Aguila and the last of his men sailed out of 
Kinsale on the 8th March 1602, with a " flattering 
gale," and the last struggle of expiring Spanish 
potency to force Catholic supremacy upon Eng- 
land through Ireland ended thus in ignominious 
failure.^ 

^ Don Juan del Aguila had carried witli him to Ireland a large 
number of gold chains, to the value of 2000 ducats, and ten swords of 



470 TREASON AND PLOT 

Whilst Don Juan was feasting in dignified fashion 
with the English commanders in Cork and ex- 
changing mordant witticisms with George Carew, 
O'Sullivan and the O'Driscolls were raging and 
fuming. Their castles and harbours had been volun- 
tarily handed to the Spaniards, to hold for the King ; 
not to surrender to the English without striking a 
blow. For Irish chiefs to rebel was nothing new, 
and nothing very heinous ; almost every great 
gentleman in Ireland had been a rebel at one time 
or another, and pardon could always be had by sub- 
mission. But though it was not unpardonable to 
rebel, it was the blackest of treason to surrender the 
Queen's dominion to the King of Spain, her relent- 
less enemy. The O'Sullivans and O'Driscolls had, 
doubtless, thought that the English rule over Ire- 
land was doomed, and had sought salvation by en- 
thusiastic adhesion to their new masters. When 
they found that they had made a mistake their rage 
and dismay knew no bounds. Our old acquaint- 
ance, Pedro Lopez de Soto, who was in command at 
Castlehaven, peacefully delivered the place to Cap- 
tain Harvey ; but before the force to occupy it had 
arrived, the O'Driscolls slipped into the fortress and 
held it against the Spaniards. Whilst the latter 
were fighting to recover it, the English entered the 
harbour and the O'Driscolls retired. Baltimore and 

honour, to be distributed amongst tlie Irish, chiefs after the expected 
victory. These presents were taken back to Spain by the general, and 
early in the following year (1603) an interminable discussion took place 
in the King's Council as to their whereabouts and destination. It was 
at last agreed that the chains and swords should be again sent to Ire- 
land in the new expedition of aid then being prepared in Corunna 
under the command of Don Martin de la Cerda, but which never 
sailed. 



O'SULLIVAN IN DUNBOY 471 

Doneshead were delivered by the Spaniards without 
difficulty, and old Sir Finnan O'Driscoll surrendered 
himself to mercy, whilst his more warlike sons, 
except those who had been killed before Kinsale, 
lurked in hiding, later, as will be told, to escape to 
Spain. 

Dunboy and Bearhaven were a more difficult 
business. The first English company of nearly 20a 
men sent in a hoy from Cork to receive the surrender 
were driven back by foul weather and lost fifty or 
sixty men from plague ; and when, finally, an Eng- 
lish force appeared before Dunboy, they found that 
Donal O'Sullivan had been before them, and had 
surprised his own fortress. From the inside the 
chief and his servants had, in the dead of night, 
pierced a hole through the wall and had admitted 
eighty of his clansmen, with Father Archer the 
Jesuit, Thomas Fitzmaurice, Lord of Linxnaw, 
William Burke, Captain Tyrrell, and others. At 
daylight the priest Archer had begged the Spanish 
Captain Francisco de Saavedra to go with him to 
O'Sullivan's chamber. There he was told by the 
chief that he (O'Sullivan) would hold his castle 
himself for the King of Spain. He had 1000 armed 
clansmen outside and 80 inside the walls, and re- 
sistance was useless. The Spaniards were all dis- 
armed, not unwillingly, it was said, and most of 
them were sent to Baltimore and so to Spain. Aguila 
was indignant, and wanted to recapture the place 
again for the English, but Montjoy only wished to 
see the back of the Spaniards and preferred to 
conquer O'Sullivan himself. 

Before this happened, O'Sullivan wrote the second 



472 TREASON AND PLOT 

of his series of eloquent letters to Spain.^ It was 
addressed to Count Caracena, the Governor of 
Galicia, who had written to tell him that O'Donnell 
was coming with aid to Ireland. Indignantly, 
O'Sullivan tells the story of the betrayal of his 
castle by Aguila. " If this place of mine be sur- 
rendered with the rest to the enemy, all of us who 
are faithful to his Majesty in Munster will be lost 
and the spirit of our people broken. I, by God's 
grace, can serve his Majesty anywhere with a 
thousand men armed in our Irish fashion, and will 
muster them at my own cost from my twenty leagues 
of well-protected coast. But once my castle, the 
chief stronghold of my land, is surrendered to the 
enemy, I shall be reduced to such straits that my 
people will follow my castles, and the Queen of 
England will get both. I must take refuge in the 
woods, there to live miserably amongst the wild 
beasts until some lure entrap me, and I am led to 
my death." A day or two later (February 22) he 
wrote a series of letters to the King, to Lerma, to 
Zubiaur, to Caracena, and others, all in the same 
strain of indignant determination. He would lose, 
he said, 2000 vassals by the surrender of his land, 
and " would barely find twenty to follow him to the 
woods and mountains, there to live like wolves 
until the English entrap us." In the Spanish 
despatch -boat that carried these heart-breaking 
epistles to Corunna, O'Sullivan sent his eldest son 
and other boys of his kin, amongst whom was the 
future historian, Philip O'Sullevan, with Donal, son 

^ Most of these were intercepted and are in " Pacata Hibernia," but 
there are two others in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv., from Siiuancas. 



THE MARCH OF THE O'SULLIVANS 473 

of Sir Finnan O'Driscoll, to clamour still for the 
Irish who were holding out for Spain in Dunboy. 

Of the heroic defence of O'Sullivan's castle for 
four long months, and of its sanguinary destruction ; 
of the marvellous march of O'Sullivan and his clan 
through the west of Ireland from the wilds of Glen- 
garriff to Connaught, after holding out for a whole 
year, this is not the place to relate in detail. The 
legends and ballads of Ireland are full of references 
to the heroism which led the O'Sullivans, men, 
women, and children, to the number of nearly 1000, 
over rugged mountains and swollen rivers, fighting 
and famishing, two-thirds the length of Ireland, 
from Bantry Bay to the O'Rourke stronghold at 
Leitrim, there to arrive a poor remnant of only 35 
spent souls whilst Tyrone was already making good 
terms with the English. Thenceforward O'Sullivan 
and his kinsmen were Spanish nobles and Ireland 
knew him no more; for, plead to Elizabeth as he 
might for forgiveness, his crime was unpardonable. 
Devout as was doubtless his Catholicism, and loud 
as was his professed detestation of English rule, we 
must need look facts in the face, and admit that his 
Homeric struggle was, in good truth, neither for his 
faith nor his country, but only for the O'Sullivan 
lands and lordships, to which he had no right but 
the favour of the English law, and which he had by 
all rules forfeited by treason against the sovereign to 
whom he had sworn allegiance. 

The news of Aguila's capitulation and return to 
Spain caused the abandonment of the preparations 
for a great expedition to Ireland. It was patent to 
every one now that Tyrone had overstated his in- 



474 TREASON AND PLOT 

fluence, and was a weak reed upon which to rest the 
conquest of Ireland. But still it was considered 
necessary for Spain to keep up English alarm by 
supporting the Irish who were in arms. O'Donnell 
in Corunna prayed fervently for an expedition in 
force. Writing to the King on April 15, 1602, he 
says : " Promptness is the very essence of success. 
... I see the time going on apace, and as every 
hour passes, nearer and nearer approaches the knife 
to the throats of the faithful band of brave, sorely 
tried people, whose hope alone is in God's mercy 
and in your Majesty's pity. I cannot help repeating 
my sorrowful reminders. . . . If I do not arrive 
within a month in the north of Ireland, I will not 
say with 2000 soldiers, but with 1500 or even 1000, 
with victuals, munitions, stores, and money, to raise 
5000 or 6000 natives, and to sustain the war by 
expelling the enemy from CNeil's country and my 
own, I doubt if a large force arriving from your 
Majesty even in June will be in time to find any- 
thing there but the blood and ashes of the multitude 
of faithful believers in your Majesty." 

O'Donnell's plan was to sail at once for Killibegs, 
which he would make his base of operations, and to 
form a junction with O'Neil by Donegal and Sligo ; 
but Caracena, with whom he stayed, and to whom 
he clamoured, as he says, day and night, was not in 
favour of sending hurriedly a small number of men, 
but rather to "feed" Tyrone with munitions, food, 
and money until a larger expedition could be got 
ready. At last, in despair, O'Donnell prayed that if 
all his supplications were unavailing he should at 
least be allowed " to go thither myself to end my 



DEATH OF O'DONNELL 475 

life with the rest of the Catholics of the north." 
But Philip III. could not think of such a thing, and 
Red Hugh O'Donnell could only weep and pray for 
his lost cause. At length, in the autumn of 1602, 
the beaten chief obtained permission to go to court 
and personally urge the Irish Catholic cause upon 
Philip and Lerma. They were at Yalladolid, and 
O'Donnell with his train was lodged seven miles 
away, in the ancient castle of Simancas, where his 
beseeching letters were first transcribed by the pre- 
sent writer. There, worn out with grief and anxiety, 
Red Hugh was seized with a burning fever, and the 
great Irishman, almost the only one of the chiefs 
who displayed any real disinterestedness in this 
struggle, ended his short, strenuous life. Whether his 
end was hastened by the poison hinted at by Carew 
or not, I cannot say, but probably it was not.^ In 
any case, his death left the Irish cause with no 
great-hearted champion, for Tyrone ruffled and 
smiled for years afterwards, a fine gentleman at the 
English court, until the crafty hands of James and 
Cecil fastened upon Ulster, and the " plantation " of 
the country drove out of it the race that looked 
upon O'Neil as its prince, as well as O'Neil himself. 
O'Donnell's faithful confessor. Father Florence 

^ Carew to Montjoy. — May 28, 1602. — "James Blake of Galway . . . 
departed from me and is gone into Spain, with a determination, bound 
by many oatbf/!, to kill O'Donnell. God give him strength and perse- 
verance " (Carow Papers). 

Same to the same. — October 1602. — "O'Donnell is dead, and I do 
think it will fall out that he is poisoned by James Blake, of whom 
your Lordship hath been formerly acquainted. At his coming into 
Spain he was suspected by O'Donnell, because he embarked at Cork 
under my authcrity, but afterwards he insinuated his access and 
O'Donnell is dead " (ibid.). 



476 TREASON AND PLOT 

Conroy, continued to press, as his master had done, 
for help to the Ulstermen ; the Adelantado still pro- 
pounded flighty schemes for the conquest of England 
and Ireland,^ for which he was severely snubbed by 
the Council ; the King's confessor, Father Cordoba, 
assured Philip that Tyrone could hold out until the 
spring (1603) if money and arms were sent to him 
by La Cerda ; and one O'Driscoll after the other came 
backwards and forwards to Corunna, and prayed 
fervently that something should be done for the 
Munster Catholics. A few remittances of money 
and stores were sent to them, but after the exodus 
of the O'Sullivans and the submission of Tyrone, 
the clamour and prayers of the Irish priests ajnd 
refugees died down. Red Hugh's son, like O'SuUi- 
van, became a Spanish noble, leaving worth} de- 
scendants to-day in the higher grandeeship ; those 
of the O'Driscoll blood who dared not go back to 
their native land settled down into Spanish citizens ; 
Tyrone himself long afterwards fled and saw Ireland 
no more. Tyrone's son died a Spaniard, figating for 
his adopted country thirty years after his father's 
surrender, and thus ingloriously the hopei flickered 
out of Spain's great dream. Powerless long ago to 
conquer England, as she first dreamed of doing, or 
of carrying Catholicism by force across the Scottish 
border, this last failure brought home to her what to 
the rest of the world was proved by evidence, that 

^ In the spring of 1602 the Adelantado was full of a great scheme 
for the invasion of England direct, by the co-operation of a force of 
14,000 from Spain with Federico Spinola from Flanders, who could, 
he said, bring 11,000 Germans, Walloons, and Italians in galleys from 
a Flemish port. 



SPAIN'S WANING DREAM 477 

her administration had lost honesty and grip, that 
her sailors had lost boldness, that her captains had 
lost skill, and that her people had lost everything. 
Craft and cunning might yet prevail, but by force of 
arms nerveless Spain could aspire no more to dictate 
the religion of England. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Mission of Thomas James to Spain — The policy of Philip towards the 
English succession — Discussion in the Council of State — The new 
policy adopted too late. — Cecil's conduct — Dynastic intrigues in 
England — Arabella Stuart's strange behaviour — Suggested ex- 
planation — Lord Beauchamp — Attempted flight of Arabella — 
Death of Elizabeth — Cecil triumphant — Extinction of the last 
hope of Catholic supremacy by means of foreign intervention. 

The only result of the repeated petitions of the 
English Catholics urged upon Philip by Father 
Persons in Rome and Father Creswell in Madrid, 
and of the recommendations of the King's Council 
detailed in chapter xii., had been the transmission 
of a message to the Duke of Sessa and Persons, 
informing them of the King's intention to adopt 
the candidature of his half-sister the Infanta to the 
crown of England. Persons was to convey this in- 
telligence to a very few only of the leading Catholics 
in England, the rank and file being simply assured 
generally that the King of Spain had not forgotten 
them, and would help them when the time came. 
The messenger by whom the English Catholics com- 
municated with Father Persons was one Thomas 
James, a rich London merchant settled in Spain/ 
and this man carried from Rome to his Catholic- 
Jesuit countrymen in Flanders the decision which 

1 An account of this man will be found in Hatfield Papers, vol. viii. 
He" lived when at home at San Lucar, but travelled much. He com- 
municated with the Catholics in England through his brother, Francis 
James, a merchant in Bread Street, London. 

478 



THE MISSION OF THOMAS JAMES 479 

had been sent to Sessa and Persons from Madrid. 
The uncompromising section to which he was ac- 
credited were not likely to be satisfied with so vague 
a message, and determined to make another effort, 
before it was too late, to urge the slothful Spaniards 
to action. 

With their renewed instances Thomas James 
arrived at the Spanish court in the early spring 
of 1602. He assured the King that "he found the 
Archduke well disposed, and the English Catholics 
anxious to participate in an action so conducive to 
the interests of the Catholic Church. But they were 
so loyal to the King of Spain that they would take 
no steps without his orders, and, consequently, the 
Archduke had sent him (James) to Spain, to make 
the proposals to the King himself. They had 
directed him to assure the King how they rejoiced 
at the news, and how humbly they thanked him for 
choosing such princes (i.e. the Archduke and the 
Infanta) for their sovereigns." This was all very 
well, but whether Thomas James and his country- 
men in Flanders understood it or not, it really meant 
that the Archduke would not raise a finger until 
he was assured that sufficient support would be sent 
to him from Spain to enforce his wife's claim against 
all competitors. He and the Infanta were in the 
midst of their hard struggle with Maurice of Nassau, 
a struggle which had already reduced their princi- 
pality to desolation, and almost to despair ; and they 
knew that to make an open offensive war upon 
England at the same time was absolutely beyond 
their power. They were middle-aged people, and 
were aware that they would be childless ; in addition 



48o TREASON AND PLOT 

to which, as we have seen, their succession to the 
English crown was clogged with the condition of 
their surrendering the dominions which they had 
inherited ; and it is therefore not surprising that 
they displayed no enthusiasm in accepting the im- 
practicable task so vaguely suggested to them. It 
was Thomas James's mission from the English 
Catholics to obtain some practical decision from 
the King, instead of the hollow, sanctimonious 
bombast with which for years they had been put 
off, and to this end they submitted a list of sug- 
gestions. The Archduke, they thought, should 
make Ireland his base, and a large Spanish naval 
force and arsenals should be established there ; ^ and 
that the King should publicly and formally transfer 
his rights to the English crown to the Archduke 
and the Infanta. Money, too, must be sent to 
Flanders, in order that Dr. Garnet, the Provincial 
of the Jesuits in England, might carry on his work 
of gaining political adherents. Twenty galleys and 
thirty ships should be maintained in Flemish har- 
bours, ready for use at the critical moment, and, 
besides the troops who will go in them, they should 
carry arms sufficient to equip 6000 or 7000 English- 
men on their arrival. This force should be supple- 
mented by forty other ships, standing ready in Spain 
to convey a like number of men to England at the 
same time. They (the English Catholics) were quite 
confident of success if these measures were promptly 
adopted, for the King of Scots was very unpopular, 
and their friends in England were numerous. " Even 

^ It must be recollected that this was written before the capitulation, 
of Kinsale was known in Flanders. 



MISSION OF THOMAS JAMES 481 

the heretics in office in England are only anxious to 
keep their places, and may easily be bought, and 
they will then gradually gain others to our side." 

But the Council could only report to the King in 
reply to all this that he had not a ducat to spare. 
The large sum which it had been decided to send to 
Flanders for the purpose two years before had never 
been sent. "Indeed," they told Philip, "nothing 
whatever had been done, although the case was very 
important." But they sadly confessed that now 
much more than 200,000 ducats would be needed. 
The army in Flanders should be reinforced and the 
Spanish fleet mustered, ready for the pretended pro- 
tection of Spain and Italy, but the Council knew 
well that with an empty treasury all this was im- 
possible. O'Donnell and the Irishmen were fretting 
their hearts out for a tithe of the sum demanded by 
the English Catholics, and even that could not be 
provided. " If the money can be found for all this," 
the Council told Philip, " the blow can be struck at 
the right moment, and in force sufficient ; but if not, 
the Council can only repeat what it has already said 
when the affair of Scotland was under discussion." ^ 

At the same time the notorious George Ker, who, 
it will be recollected, had formerly served the King 
of Scots as a Catholic emissary, came to Madrid — 
apparently on his own account this time, and as a 
matter of business — to urge Philip to persevere in 
helping Tyrone (whose defeat was now known) by 
means of a large employment of Scottish ships and 
men, and by the purchase, through Ker, of course, 

^ That is to say, to conciliate the interests which they could not suc- 
cessfully oppose, and make the best terms possible with James. 

2 H 



482 TREASON AND PLOT 

of a number of armed vessels, to hold the Irish 
coast for the Spaniards. Nothing, however, came 
of this either; for it all meant money, and of 
money there was none to spare under such a king 
as Philip III., and such a Minister as the Duke of 
Lerma. 

But still, the constant advices received from 
England of the failing health of the Queen made 
it necessary that some move should be devised, 
unless the worst possible solution for Spain was 
to be adopted on the death of Elizabeth, without an 
attempt to prevent it. In November (1602), accord- 
ingly, Father Creswell once more urged upon Philip 
to take up the matter actively. Galleys and troops, 
he said, should be mustered in Flanders, to hasten 
to England the moment the Queen should die ; the 
Spanish fleet should be kept ready to sail ; foreign 
ships should be freighted : all the old counsels of 
activity and expenditure were repeated, for the 
claimants were many, said Creswell, and Spanish 
aid at the right moment would turn the scale. 
When this minute of Father Creswell' s came for 
examination before the Council of State, utter 
helplessness dictated their report upon it. *' Father 
Creswell should be thanked for reminding your 
Majesty of the papers he sent last year; but it is 
difficult to know what to say about them, as they 
recommend the taking up of the English enterprise ; 
and things are here in such a condition as to make 
this impossible." This was on the 5th December 
1602 (N.S.), and up to this time it is evident that 
nothing whatever had been done to comply with the 
petitions of the English Catholics, or to promote 



SPANISH POLICY CHANGED 483 

effectually a large party in England pledged to 
support Spanish Jesuit aims. 

Spaniards had been too proud to confess it, but 
it was now quite clear that the aims themselves, 
so far as they depended upon forcing the Infanta 
upon England as Elizabeth's successor, were abso- 
lutely impracticable and impossible. In any case, 
only by means of overwhelming force or popular 
consent could such a course have been feasible. 
That Spain could no longer wield such a force was 
demonstrated, and that the general feeling even 
of Catholics in England was violently opposed to 
a Spanish sovereign and to Jesuit methods, was 
proved by a hundred signs ; and more than all else, 
by the bitter antagonism of the English secular 
priests, and by the wholesale desertion to other 
orders of the Church of the English students in 
seminaries controlled by Jesuits. But it needed a 
bold man to tell the truth to Philip, and to propose 
means for making the best of matters as they were. 
The bold man was found in Guzman, that haughty, 
rough-tongued Count of Olivares, who had lectured 
and bullied Pontiffs for years as Spanish ambassador 
in E-ome. What was the p-ood, he asked, of talk- 
ing any longer of the Archduke and the Infanta? 
Neither of them cared for the candidature : the 
King had no money or resources sufficient to force 
the Infanta on the English throne against the will 
of the nation ; nor would it be to his interest to do 
so, even if he could. Why not face the facts at once, 
and promise support to the most popular English 
Catholic claimant, and thus, at all events, keep out 
the King of Scots, who would otherwise walk into 



484 TREASON AND PLOT 

the succession without an effort ? This was very 
un-Spanish in its practical directness, and it took 
the King and the Council of State two months 
before they sufficiently recovered from the shock to 
discuss and decide upon the matter finally for the 
King's guidance. 

On the 5th February and the 2nd March 1603 
(N.S.), accordingly, the whole matter of Spain's policy 
towards the English succession was passed under 
review in the light of this new idea. The English 
Catholics, for whom Persons and Creswell spoke, 
had in the interim again urged, through the latter, 
that Philip should either make effective preparations 
for action on the Queen's death, or else relieve them 
of their pledges to support the Infanta or any other 
Spanish nominee. If they knew that they had to 
depend only upon themselves, they might take some 
course advantageous to their cause ; but if they were 
kept in suspense until a vacancy occurred, they were 
certain that the King of Scotland would succeed. 
They rather indignantly pointed out that, after all 
their years of devotion to Spain, they and their cause 
were likely to be ruined by the fault of the Catholic 
King. In addition to this, Zuniga, the ambassador, 
had been told by Henry IV., that if Philip would 
agree with him to nominate a neutral King of Eng- 
land, he would support him, but if Spain endea- 
voured to foist the Infanta, or any other avowedly 
Spanish candidate upon the throne, he (Henry IV.) 
would throw in his weight on the side of the King 
of Scots. The problem was thus complicated : 
Henry must be excluded, but yet prevented from 
helping James. All this made it necessary to discuss 



SPAIN FACES THE FACTS 485 

again the whole of the candidates proposed three 
years before by the English Jesuit. Catholics through 
Father Persons. The Infanta was ruled out, for the 
reasons already stated, and the Dukes of Savoy and 
Parma were dropped, because they were foreigners 
connected with Spain, and would be opposed by 
France. The only candidate, therefore, remaining 
on the list presented by Persons in 1600 was the 
son of the Earl of Worcester (Henry Somerset, Lord 
Herbert), but no specific reference to him was made 
in the new discussion. 

It was considered by the Council the absolute 
duty of the King to bring England, if possible, into 
the Catholic fold ; and with this end the Catholics 
of England were to be given to understand that he 
had no temporal interest of his own to serve ; no 
desire to control England or promote his own house. 
They (the English Catholics) had formerly prayed 
him to adopt the Infanta, and he had done so ; but 
if there were any other Catholic candidate of their 
own nation who would be more likely to unite the 
country, the King of Spain would cede his own 
rights to him and help him with might and main. 
He (the King), for his part, will immediately make 
ready for the eventuality, and urges the Catholics 
to choose their candidate, but not to announce his 
name prematurely. In the meanwhile, the Council 
prayed the King to have ships fitted out with all 
speed in Spain, a large sum of money sent to 
Flanders, and means devised for raising money in 
the abundance required. Count de Miranda here 
put in a word of reason. He thought they had 
better see first whether they could raise any money, 



486 TREASON AND PLOT 

and in the meanwhile avoid offending the King 
of Scots by taking sides against him, until they 
knew they could crush him. But Poza said it would 
be better to have any heretic there rather than 
James ; and again Olivares came down with his cool 
douche of common sense. He had always insisted, 
he said, that the greatness of the empire did not 
consist of a further extension of territory, and to 
help an English candidate for the throne was the 
only way to exclude James. As for listening to the 
canting professions of the latter of his readiness to 
become a Catholic and surrender his son in return 
for the payment of a sum of money and the support 
of Spain, he did not believe a word of it, nor of 
the talk of the Italian and French priests about the 
King of Scots' conversion. But still, he would not 
quite shut the door even against James, in case of 
unavoidable eventualities. 

The great thing now was that no time should be 
lost in assuring the English Catholics of effective 
support for the Catholic candidate of their choice ; 
their hatred of the Scots should be fomented ; very 
liberal promises of reward should be given to all 
prominent Catholics and heretics, " almost without 
distinction," and the various other claimants and 
their principal supporters should have given to 
them " estates, incomes, offices, grants, privileges, 
and exemptions ; almost, indeed, sharing the crown 
amongst them." Olivares recommended, too, that 
the anti-foreign cry should be promoted as much as 
possible in England ; whilst the people should be 
persuaded that the mighty King of Spain was 
behind the chosen English candidate, not for his 



NEW SPANISH PLANS 487 

own ends, but in order that England might be 
happy, and prosperously governed by a native King 
of her own free choice. If possible, moreover, the 
Queen's Ministers were to be reconciled to the 
Catholics, and peace negotiations with them again 
initiated by Spain. The Pope, and through him the 
King of France, as well as the English themselves, 
were to be greatly impressed with the splendid 
magnanimity of Philip in surrendering his paramount 
claims to the English crown for the sake of the 
Catholic Church and the tranquillity of England. 

All these points were discussed ad nauseam, the 
object mainly being to save appearances, and to con- 
vince the world that the change of front was made 
from generosity, and not from want of power ; and 
the Pope especially was to be made an instrument 
for spreading this view of the subject and for dis- 
arming the King of France. At the same time it 
was made clear that Spain still intended, if she 
could, by religious chicanery to monopolise power in 
England. The troops in Flanders were to be landed 
in the Thames, or at any other point requested by 
the chosen candidate ; the Spanish ships were to 
land another force in the north-west of England, as 
near to the Scottish border as possible. The King- 
elect would take care that the English fleet would 
be no longer dangerous to the Spanish ships ; and 
Olivares thought that when the question of the 
gratitude of the new King towards Spain came to be 
discussed, there would be no difficulty in obtaining 
the cession of the Isle of Wight. On no account 
should an English port on the mainland be accepted 
by Spain, even if offered, to avoid offending France 



488 TREASON AND PLOT 

or arousing English suspicion ; and if Henry IV. 
was very much discontented about Spain getting the 
Isle of Wight, he might have the Channel Islands 
to keep him quiet. The whole business was to be 
cautiously disclosed to Persons first, and to Cres- 
well^ after arrangements had been made with the 
Pope ; and when the time for action came, Father 
Persons was to hurry from Rome to Flanders and 
cross to England as cardinal with full power. 

This was the plan finally adopted by Spain for 
making England Catholic, and some activity really 
seems to have been exercised in obtaining the money 
necessary for the purpose ; but before the English 
Catholics themselves could be fully enlightened, it 
was considered necessary for Persons and Sessa to 
make sure of the Pope, and through him of the 
King of France. Father Creswell, in the mean- 
while, was chafing with impatience. His principals 
in England were sending him constant news of the 
growing weakness of the Queen and the impatience 
of the Catholics who looked to Spain. Creswell in 
the months of February and March haunted Lerma's 
ante-chambers, and prayed personally and by letter 
for a resolution that he might transmit to England. 
If he did not get one at once, he said, he would 
wash his hands of the whole business, and tell the 
English Catholics that they must take their own 
course, for he had lost hope. A person upon whom 
entire dependence could be placed, Federico Spinola, 
or another, would have to be appointed in Flanders 

^ It was decided that Creswell should be told at once if news came 
that Elizabeth was like to die. This was the case, and Creswell was 
told in March. 



FINAL ARRANGEMENTS 489 

to make the final arrangements with the leading 
Catholics in England, and to act when the moment 
came ; the self-denying, soft-spoken proclamation to 
be published in England when the Spanish troops 
landed must be printed and sent to Flanders to be 
ready ; and, above all, urged Creswell, the one hun- 
dred thousand ducats which had been promised for 
transmission to the English Catholics should at once 
be obtained from Ambrosio Spinola, who had agreed 
to lend it. " Otherwise," says Creswell, " 1 must 
have permission to undeceive the persons to whom 
the promise was made. They have spent, and are 
spending, money on the public service, trusting to 
the pledge given to their messenger (Thomas James ?) 
by the Count de Miranda at San Lorenzo, and the 
delay in the matter looks very bad. They are, more- 
over, persons of so much importance that the whole 
success of the affair depends upon keeping them ; 
and this can only be done by straightforward and 
punctual dealing." ^ 

It is plain from this that Creswell had now — the 
middle of March 1603 (N.S.) — been informed of the 
whole plan, and was hurriedly making the arrange- 
ments for at least the remittance to Flanders of the 
money to be used in gaining English support ; and 
as this money had been promised by Ambrosio 
Spinola on loan, it may be concluded that it was 
duly forwarded before Elizabeth's death was known 
in Spain, although it cannot have arrived in Flan- 
ders until after the event. 

At the same time as these deliberations were pro- 

^ All the papers referred to above are in the Simancas MSS., and 
are printed in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 



490 TREASON AND PLOT 

ceeding, one more effort was made by the Scottish 
Catholics to revive the plan suggested by Bothwell 
in the previous year, to restore Catholicism in Scot- 
land by means of Spanish troops. The Scottish lords 
sent Fernihurst (Andrew Ker) to Madrid with pro- 
posals to this end in March 1603. He, Colonel 
Semple, and Bothwell were urgent and persistent in 
their prayers to Philip, and the offers they made 
would perhaps, at another time, have been tempt- 
ing. They would establish the faith in Scotland, re- 
inforce Ireland with troops and stores, and trouble 
the Queen of England from the west coast of Scot- 
land. They would surrender to the King of Spain 
the four great fortresses of Scotland, Dumbarton, 
Broughty, Blackness, and Hermitage, and in the 
event of war between Spain and England, would 
provide a mercenary army of 26,000 Scotsmen to 
help the Spaniards. All they asked in return was 
that a force of 4000 Spaniards should be sent to 
Scotland at the cost of Spain ; and they promised for 
repayment that, on the restoration of the Catholic 
faith, a third of the ecclesiastical revenues of the 
country should be set apart until the whole of the 
cost was reimbursed to the Spanish King. Bothwell 
tried hard also to make terms for his own reconcilia- 
tion with James as part of the arrangement, but the 
Spaniards declined to have anything to do with that ; 
and as the whole proposal was, like all previous ones 
from the same quarter, open to the suspicion that 
in the end the King of Scots alone might benefit 
by it, the Spanish King and Council discussed it 
unsympathetically, until the great news of James's 
peaceful accession to England rendered it obsolete. 



CECIL'S ATTITUDE 491 

Whilst the fate of England was thus being dis- 
cussed and decided in leisurely fashion in Spain, 
matters in England itself were rapidly nearing the 
crisis. The secret of Sir Robert Cecil's close under- 
standing with James had been well kept even from 
the most intimate friends of the former.^ There 
were plenty of courtiers besides Cecil who sought 
the smiles of the rising sun, and their private 
advice to the coming King was duly conveyed by 
the latter to Cecil. It was natural, of course, that 
Elizabeth's officers and ministers should look with 
some anxiety to the future. The Queen was old 
and ailing, a disputed succession would inevitably 
mean civil war, and probably foreign invasion, and 
yet, so far as could be seen, the man who was of all 
others most responsible for the prosperity and order 
of the country was detached from every interest in 
the matter and free from anxiety for the future. 
His own political associates looked to him for a lead 
but did not get it. They knew that the traditional 
policy he had inherited was to keep Scotland and 
France at arm's length by a friendship of England 
with Flanders and Spain ; they saw that the talk 
of peace with these powers always found a ready 
listener in Cecil, and that practically peace now- 
existed between the new sovereigns of Flanders and 
the Queen. Surely, thought those members of the 
"Moderate" party who had always followed Lord 
Burghley and his son, "Mr. Secretary" will not 

1 Cecil was in such fear that the correspondence might be discovered 
that on one occasion he prayed James not to write to him direct, but 
only through Lord Henry Howard. James, however, still continued 
to send some of his letters to Cecil, 



492 TREASON AND PLOT 

stand helplessly by and see his own ruin consum- 
mated by the unchecked accession of a King whose 
national policy had always been that of Cecil's 
enemies. Ralegh, his old friend, Cobham, his 
brother-in-law, and others like them, tried to draw 
from him some expression of his sympathies and 
intentions, and that he purposely deceived them is 
seen by his own ungenerous words written to James 
on the subject : " This I do profess in the presence 
of Him that knoweth and search eth all men's harts, 
that if I dyd not some tyme cast a stone into the 
mouth of these gaping crabbs, when they are in 
their prodigal humour of discourses, they would not 
stick to confess dayly how contrary it is to their 
nature to resolve to be under your sovereignty, 
though they confess (Ralegh especially) that (rebus 
sic stantibus) natural policy forceth them to keep 
on foot such a trade against the great day of mart. 
In all which light and sudden humours of his, 
though I do no way check him, because he shall 
not think I reject his freedom or his affection, but 
alwaies {sub sigillis confessionis) use contestation 
with him that I neyther had, nor would ever in 
individuo contemplate future idea, nor ever hoped 
for more than justice in time of change, yet under 
pretext of extraordinary care for his well doing I 
have seemed to dissuade him from engaging himself 
too farr even for himself, much more therefore to 
forbeare to assume for me or my present inten- 
tions."^ Such talk as this from Cecil to Ralegh 
under the circumstances the latter must have known 

^ Letters of James VI. and Sir Robert Cecil. Hatfield (published 
by the Camden Society). 



BETRAYAL OF THE MODERATES 493 

to be insincere. It was evidently intended to pre* 
vent an approach of Ralegh to James, and to 
encourage him to proceed with any plans he might 
have for arranging the succession on the traditional 
lines of the party to which both he and Cecil be- 
longed. That this was the case is seen by Cecil's 
anger, expressed in his letter to the King that the 
Duke of Lennox, who had recently passed through 
London, should have approached Ralegh and others 
of the Cecil party with the object of gaining them 
to the King's side.^ A more startling proof still is 
seen in the dastardly letter from Lord Henry Howard 
to Cecil,^ suggesting how Ralegh, Northumberland, 
Cobham, and others of the party should be led 
astray and ruined, both in the eyes of Elizabeth 
and of James. " So must you embark this gallant 
Cobham by your wit and interest in some course 
the Spanish waie, as either may reveale his weak- 
ness or snare his ambition. ... Be not unwilling 
... to engage him in the traffic with suspected 
ministers, and upon the first occasion of further 
treaty (with Spain) to make him the Minister. For 
my part, I account it impossible for him to scape the 
snares which wit may set and weakness is apt to fall 
into." By this it is evident that it was the delibe- 
rate plan of Cecil and his ame damnie, Howard, to 
use Cobham and Ralegh especially as their uncon- 
scious instruments. To tempt them by half hints, 
opportunity, and significant glances to enter into any 
negotiation tending against the candidature of the 

1 Letters of James VI. and Sir Robert Cecil. Hatfield (published 
by the Camden Society). 

2 Britisli Museum MSS., Cotton. Titus, cvi. 386. 



494 TREASON AND PLOT 

King of Scots, with the double object of allowing 
Cecil to keep in touch with and frustrate any 
intrigue that was afoot, and of ruining friends who 
might possibly become rivals. 

How far the Jesuit intrigues for the succession 
really extended in England it is now extremely diffi- 
cult to decide. We have seen by the deliberations 
of the Spanish Council and by Father Creswell's 
importunities that no decided action was taken or 
any large sums of money sent from Spain to the 
English Catholics in Flanders, at least until within 
a week or ten days before Elizabeth's death, and it 
was not possible for the 100,000 ducats promised to 
have reached Brussels in time for employment before 
that event. But we have also Creswell's word for it 
that his principals were already spending consider- 
able sums of money by anticipation, and it may be 
concluded that the English Catholics of the Jesuit 
party were acquainted with the probable intention 
of Spain to help any acceptable native CathoUc 
chosen by them in place of the Infanta, as their 
candidate for the English throne, before the discus- 
sion in the Spanish Council of the go^February ^^^3- 
This being the case, we shall be safe in assuming 
that any movement at about this period amongst 
Catholics and others in England to promote the 
accession of a native-born candidate as opposed to 
the Scotsman, was connected more or less directly 
with the series of deliberations in Spain and Flan- 
ders, which have been described in the preceding 
pages. 

The only English candidate mentioned in the 



THE ENGLISH CANDIDATES 495 

petition of the English Catholics to the Spanish 
King upon which the deliberations referred to were 
based was the Earl of Worcester ; but in the inter- 
minable discussions in the Council, neither his name 
nor any other was adopted, in order, apparently, 
that the choice of the English themselves should 
seem to be quite spontaneous. It is, however, im- 
probable that matters had gone so far as for Spain 
to promise powerful armed and pecuniary aid with- 
out some general understanding as to the person' 
likely to be selected. It is to be noticed that in the 
course of the discussions in the Council the person 
to be chosen is always referred to in the masculine 
gender, and when the question was considered what 
reply should be given to the English if they sug- 
gested, " as they had done before," a marriage be- 
tween the English sovereign of their choice and a 
member of the King of Spain's family, it was agreed 
that "inasmuch as France would be just as jealous 
that the Queen (Consort) of England should be of 
your Majesty's kin as if the King were, and as such 
a marriage would additionally pledge your Majesty's 
prestige in the success of the undertaking, and it 
might be advantageous to the Catholics to have the 
disposal of both positions, and thus enable them 
to reconcile difficulties and silence discontents, the 
Council is of opinion that your Majesty should reply 
that . . . you think best to leave them absolute 
freedom of action in this particular."i 

It will be seen by this that the Spanish Council, 
at all events, anticipated the choice of a man and 
a bachelor. Whom could they have had in their 
minds ? The young Earl of Worcester had already 



496 TREASON AND PLOT 

been married three years, and from his character 
and subsequent action it would appear extremely 
improbable that he was the person now thought of. 
The Earl of Derby was not likely to be approached 
after his reception of previous advances — though his 
sister had been mentioned more than once — nor was 
the Earl of Cumberland, who was an avowed Puritan 
and also extremely unpopular with the Spaniards for 
his depredations upon their shipping. The Earl of 
Huntington, the representative of the Poles, was 
also a Puritan, and certainly had no connection with 
the Catholics. There only remained, therefore, Ara- 
bella Stuart and the descendants of Catherine Grey, 
and it is quite possible that this may lead us to the 
threshold of the mystery which has always sur- 
rounded the doings of these personages at the 
period, behaviour so extraordinary in the case of 
Arabella as to lead those who knew her to conclude 
that she was mad. 

Some of the gossip of the English Jesuit party, 
with regard to the selection of a candidate to take 
the place of the Infanta, and pointing to Arabella 
Stuart, must have reached the ears of James as early 
as 1601 ; for writing to his secret agent. Lord Henry 
Howard, in that year, he deplores " this accident 
fallen to Arbell," and expresses a hope that for " her 
own weal such order were taken as she might be 
preserved from evil company, and that evil-inclined 
persons might not have access unto her, to supplant, 
abusing of the frailty of her youth and sex ; for if it 
be true, as I am credibly informed, that she is lately 
moved by the persuasions of the Jesuits to change 
her religion and declare herself a Catholic . . . she 



ARABELLA STUART 497 

hath been very evil attended on." That she had 
been sounded by the party with this end is certain, 
for we have already seen that in the confidential 
accounts given by the English Jesuits to the Spanish 
King she is distinctly called a Catholic ; but from 
the absence of any specific mention of her in the 
subsequent Spanish discussions, and from the assump- 
tion throughout that the candidate was to be a man, 
it is clear that she had not openly avowed herself 
a Catholic, and was not at this time the principal 
person in the minds of the anti-Scottish Catholics as 
their candidate for the throne. The correspondence 
of the Jesuit Father Rivers in England with Father 
Persons in Rome^ in the following year confirms 
this, as he mentions her (March 1602) in connection 
with a supposed plan of a party in England to place 
her upon the throne by French aid. Although there 
was no truth in this rumour, its transmission from 
one influential Jesuit to another shows that Arabella, 
at this period at least, was not the principal candidate 
of their party. A few months later (July 1602) 
Father Rivers informed Persons that he hears of an 
intention of marrying Arabella to the Earl of Hert- 
ford's second son, " and to carry the succession that 
way ; but these supra nos nihil ad nos." This seems 
to form the first clue to what I conceive was the plan 
of the anti-Scottish Catholics in union with Spain. 

Matters had not been going smoothly for some 
time at Hardwick Hall. Arabella was fretting and 
chafing at what she considered the undeserved semi- 
imprisonment in which she was kept by her grand- 
mother. She was disappointed at the way in which 

1 Foley Papers. 

2 I 



498 TREASON AND PLOT 

she had been treated by the Queen, sometimes 
flattered with the idea that she was regarded as her 
successor, and sometimes exposed to humiliation if 
any of the courtiers dared to look towards her. She 
had incurred the Queen's displeasure, amongst other 
things, by some sort of flirtation with Essex, and 
now that she was buried at Hard wick, she, and 
those around her, were treated with ever-increasing 
suspicion. She was, on the other hand, as amorous, 
and probably as ambitious, as Elizabeth herself had 
been at a similar age, and evidently endeavoured to 
imitate the behaviour of Elizabeth before her acces- 
sion. Both her Cavendish and her Talbot uncles 
sympathised with her ; and her aunt, the Countess of 
Shrewsbury, her greatest friend and a Catholic, was un- 
questionably in communication with the Jesuit party. 
Negotiations of some sort were in progress between 
Arabella and these relatives of hers in 1602, and 
during the summer of that year she endeavoured to 
plan a flight from Hardwick by the aid of a chaplain 
and tutor named Starkey, whose mysterious pro- 
ceedings with her and his subsequent suicide gave 
rise to an infinity of gossip and questionable scandal. 
At some period early in that summer a suggestion 
had been made, circuitously and secretly, by the 
Earl of Hertford, or his son Lord Beauchamp, for a 
marriage between Arabella and one of the two sons 
of the latter. On the face of it the suggestion was 
absurd, as the two boys in question were then only 
sixteen and fourteen years old respectively, whilst 
Arabella was twenty-seven. When the idea was 
broached to the old Countess of Shrewsbury she was 
in great alarm, and forbade all further mention of 



ARABELLA AND THE SEYMOURS 499 

such a project ; but late in December of the same 
year, 1602, Arabella, either because she now better 
understood the significance of such a match, or 
simply, as she pretended afterwards, to enable her to 
get out of the clutches of her grandmother, renewed 
the negotiation on her own account with the con- 
nivance of her uncles. With much difficulty, for 
every one was in mortalfear of the old Countess, she 
managed to induce a servant, one Dodderidge, to 
carry to the Earl of Hertford a letter of credence 
from her, and a verbal message to the effect that if 
he still wished for the marriage formerly proposed 
between his eldest grandson and herself he should 
renew the negotiation in another way and not 
through the old Countess. She suggested also that 
the boy suitor should be sent in disguise to Hard- 
wick, in order that she might see him ; and her 
Cavendish uncles were mentioned as approving of 
the step she was taking. 

The messenger arrived at Tottenham Park on the 
30th December 1602, and with some trouble obtained 
access to the Earl, who was at dinner. Kneeling, he 
delivered his message out of earshot of the other 
persons in the room ; but before the words were well 
out of his mouth, Hertford, in great perturbation, 
bade him be silent, and, placing the hapless mes- 
senger under lock and key, he sent post-haste to 
reveal the whole matter to the Council, and to beg 
for orders as to what course he should take. At 
first sight, this action of Hertford's was inexpli- 
cable if he had, as was apparently the case, previously 
made the same proposal secretly himself; and we 
are driven to seek an explanation of his inconsistency 



500 TREASON AND PLOT 

in any change of the circumstances that had taken 
place in the interim. His own venture in that field 
had probably rendered Hertford somewhat shy of 
dynastic marriages; he could have nothing personally 
to gain by plunging himself and his family into re- 
volutionary action unless with a certainty of success, 
and it is most likely that the initiative had in the 
first place come rather from his son, Lord Beauchamp, 
than from Hertford himself. He must have seen, 
moreover, how rapidly James's chances had advanced 
during the course of the year, and what looked 
possible when the proposal was first made might 
look impossible later. But all this, though it may 
explain Hertford's inconsistency, does not explain 
the subsequent proceedings of Arabella and Lord 
Beauchamp. 

In any case, Hertford's message caused an immense 
sensation at court, and the air was full of strange 
rumours and conjectures. The Queen was in a 
towering rage.^ Hertford himself was summoned to 
explain personally ; the messenger was brought to 
London and examined again and again, though he 
had nothing fresh to tell ; and Sir Henry Brounker 
was sent down to Hard wick to examine Arabella 
herself. He found her flighty, fractious, and hys- 
terical, contradicting herself repeatedly, writing in- 
terminable letters so obscure that no one then or 
since could fathom their meaning. Full of hints at 
one time of some mysterious love aflair, talking of 
"my little little love," and bewailing that she, a 
grown woman, could not have a sweetheart like any- 

^ The Venetian ambassador in London says tliat the chagrin 
shortened her life. 



ARABELLA'S BEHAVIOUR 501 

body else ; and then suddenly declaring that the 
man to whom she is attached is — of all persons — ^her 
cousin, the King of Scots. At the beginning of 
February her confidant, Starkey, hanged himself in 
London, and this set afloat another swarm of 
rumours. At one time (February 21) Arabella de- 
termined to get out of her grandmother's clutches 
somehow, and resolutely refused to eat or drink 
under her roof. The old lady herself was extremely 
unwise, exaggerating and treating with undue 
seriousness Arabella's "tantrums," and Sir Henry 
Brounker was kept continually running backwards 
and forwards for two months, trying ineffectually to 
discover what it all meant. On the 2nd March 
Arabella wrote a letter to Brounker, asserting that 
she was " free from all promise, contract, or inten- 
tion to marry," and declared that she would never 
do so, as she preferred death to matrimony. She 
eomplained that her "conceits" were taken seriously, 
and, at another time, confessed to Brounker that 
what she said was only for the purpose of mystifying 
him. To the Queen she wrote long, incoherent 
letters, praying that she might tell her the great 
secret personally, and said that two lines from the 
Queen's own hand would gain more from her than 
all the councillors could. ^ 

1 The correspondence and examinations are at Hatfield, and have, to 
a great extent, been printed in Miss E. T. Bradley's "Life of Arabella 
Stuart." One important letter is in Edward's "Life and Letters of 
Ralegh," in which Arabella hints that those who are abetting her are 
abroad. " I can assure you that all that are of my counsell are out of 
all possibility of danger and out of your reach. Neither doth her 
Majesty's commandment prevail so far, though her fame and entreaty 
be everywhere glorious and powerful. And for myself, I will rather 
spit my tongue in my examiner or torturer's face than it shall be said 
. . , that an extorted truth came out of my lips." 



502 TREASON AND PLOT 

As the Queen's death became daily more immi- 
nent the plot thickened. Both Beaumont, the French 
ambassador, and Father Rivers mentioned early in 
March that the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury 
were " very inward " with Secretary Cecil, with whom 
they had constant secret meetings ; and rumours of 
the wildest character were rife about the proceedings 
of Arabella, Father Rivers repeating a strange rumour 
that Cecil was going to marry her himself and raise 
her to the throne. We can understand now better 
than his contemporaries why Cecil was so friendly 
and confidential with the Catholic Shrewsburys, in 
whose plans for their niece he was probably pre- 
tending to be a consenting party until the moment 
came for action. On March lo Henry Cavendish 
and a Catholic gentleman named Stapleton — a rela- 
tive, be it noted, of the most influential English 
Catholic ecclesiastic in Flanders — mustered a squad- 
ron of forty horsemen in the neighbourhood of Hard- 
wick Hall. The leaders, one of whom had a lady's 
pillion upon his horse, awaited, according to agree- 
ment with x^rabella, at the church of Hucknall, 
about half a mile from Hardwick. But the redoubt- 
able old Bess, secretly forewarned, no doubt, by Cecil, 
caused her granddaughter to be prevented from leav- 
ing the domain. Finding that she came not, Henry 
Cavendish and his friends rode up to his mother's 
gates and demanded to see his niece. The old 
Countess admitted her " bad son," as she called him, 
but warned the Papist, Stapleton, away. Henry 
Cavendish endeavoured to convey his niece outside 
to his horsemen, but the Countess had assembled her 
household and tenants, and a stormy scene ensued. 



ARABELLA'S FLIGHT PREVENTED 503 

in which Arabella indignantly demanded if she was a 
prisoner, and conversed through the closed gates with 
Stapleton, with whom she arranged a meeting for 
the following day. But by this time the alarm had 
spread, the Countess declaimed and protested urbi 
et orbi, and Stapleton sought safety in flight, whilst 
Cavendish was summoned by the Council to London, 
and Arabella was carried off to Wrest House, where, 
under the guardianship of the Earl of Kent, all hope 
of her escape was gone. Simultaneously with this 
attempt to abduct Arabella, Lord Beauchamp, who had 
recently become a widower, and was, it is said, be- 
trothed to her, also disappeared,^ and it is impossible 
not to see a connection between the two facts. 

From a consideration of all these circumstances it 
would appear probable that, although Hertford him- 
self was a Protestant, as befitted a son of the Pro- 
tector Somerset, Lord Beauchamp, the direct heir to 
the crown under the will of Henry VIIL, was ready 
to accept Spanish and Catholic aid to raise him to the 
throne, and that, at a period subsequent to the 
autumn of 1602, the Jesuit party conceived the plan 
of conciliating xirabella's friends and consolidating 
the Catholic forces by a union between the two 
claimants. The plan, if it existed, was a clever one, 
for the Grey-Seymour succession would not fail to 
please the Protestant party, whilst the anti-Scottish 
Catholics, of course, would have rejoiced at the ex- 
clusion of James and the accession of monarchs 
under the patronage of Spain. But it is evident 

1 Venetian Calendar, Scaramelli to the Doge, March 20, 1603. It 
will be recollected that years before this we have seen Beauchamp on the 
point of escaping to Spain. 



504 TREASON AND PLOT 

that Cecil had his hand on the intrigue. His " in- 
wardness" with the Shrewsburys gave him all the 
information he needed about the plans of Arabella's 
friends, and doubtless Hertford's panic when he 
received Arabella's message was owing to a warn- 
ing that Cecil had been made acquainted by the 
old Countess, and disapproved of, the former matri- 
monial proposal to Arabella ; as well as to the con- 
viction that James's accession had now become 
inevitable. These feelings may not have been 
shared by his son, who was more adventurous 
and more directly interested than Hertford him- 
self, and the balance of probability seems to incline 
to the conclusion that Beauchamp and Arabella 
were the persons indicated as the candidates of 
the Spanish Catholic party to succeed to Elizabeth 
by the aid of the ships, troops, and money of 
King Philip. 

But the plot failed even before it reached maturity, 
first, from the vigilance and secrecy of Cecil, which 
enabled him to tranquillise James and make every 
preparation for his peaceful accession, whilst remain- 
ing himself, to all appearance, so entirely detached 
as to invite the confidence of his own partisans; and, 
secondly, from the procrastination and unreadiness 
of the Spanish King and his Ministers ; who, as we 
have seen, were prosily deliberating and laying down 
a course of action that would take months to de- 
velop, whilst Elizabeth had but a few days to live. 
England was thus kept peacefully Protestant at the 
critical moment by the craft of Cecil and the sloth of 
Spain. 

As the hour approached for which James had so 



ACCESSION OF JAMES 505 

long and impatiently yearned ; the hour when he might 
mount the "towardly rydding horse, of St. George," in- 
stead, as he said, of "daily burstin in daunting a 
wylde, unreulie coalte," men of all parties in England 
understood that nothing was likely to stand in the 
way of his accession. On March 17 Northumber- 
land wrote to him saying that the Queen had been 
*'evil now almoaste a month." The fact had been 
kept secret for twelve days and the indisposition was 
ascribed to Elizabeth's anger at the conditions granted 
to Tyrone, to Arabella's strange vagaries, and to the 
Countess of Nottingham's death ; but at length the 
truth had to be told. The Queen ate and slept but 
very little and the " phisitions conclud that if this 
contineu she must needes fall into a distemper, not a 
frensie, but rather a dulnesse and a lethargic." The 
Venetian envoy in London, writing on the same day 
(March 17), says that on the anniversary of Essex's 
death a few days before, "the Queen had burst into 
tears and dolorous lamentations, as though for some 
deadly sin she had committed, and then fell ill of a 
sickness, which the doctors instantly judged to be 
mortal." 

As the great Queen lay dying at Eichmond all 
things were made ready. Eight fine galleons, fully 
armed, and with 500 troops on board of each one, 
lay in the Thames ; the City of London was secured ; 
Cecil's brother, Burghley, commanded in the north ; 
the doubtful recusants throughout the country were 
cast into prison,^ and the draft proclamation to 

1 Bruce •writes (for King James) to Lord Henry Howard (for Cecil): 
"The means are most politique and wise by which yow have dispersed 
tlie clowd of ane apparent Popish uprore, and it is a very safe and singu- 
larly good rewle rather to prevent than to be prevented; but we did so 



5o6 TREASON AND PLOT 

be issued by the new King was sent for his approval 
by Cecil.^ " This accident," wrote Northumberland 
to the King in reference to the Queen's illness, 
"made all the nation looke about them. Men talke 
freely of your Majestie's rights, and all in general 
gives you a great allowance. The affections of many 
are discovered to be wholly devoted to your service. 
Every one almost embraces you." The only thing 
necessary now to stamp the seal of right upon the 
claim of James was for the Queen at her last hour to 
acknowledge him as her successor, and this requisite 
was thoughtfully provided by Cecil to make his work 
complete. Elizabeth lay speechless with her hand 
in that of the Primate when Cecil and the Council 
clustered around her couch. On the mention of the 
King of Scots' name the Secretary asserted that the 
dying sovereign gave a mute sign of assent. It was 
enough, and almost before the Queen's last sigh was 
breathed, Robert Cary was galloping along the north 
road as hard as swift horses could speed bearing the 
pregnant news to the new King. 

We have seen that for years past, when it suited 
him, James had professed his leaning towards Catho- 
licism, and even since the friendship with Cecil had 
rendered unnecessary his advances to the Pope and 
Spain, he had certainly led Catholics of all sorts to 

muclie trust in your Industrie that if thay had gon on to do their worst 
yew could have pulled such feathers from their wings as might have 
made them come shorte of the great prey they hunted for " (Letters of 
Cecil and James, Camden Society). 

^ " Music," wrote Bruce, " which soundeth so sweetly in his ears 
that he cannot alter no note in so agreeable an harmony" {Ibid.). "It 
sail not be amiss," wrote the same agent, " if yow temper the King's too 
great haste in removing hence in case God sail call the Queen . . . for 
now he burnes to be gone." 



JAMES AND THE CATHOLICS 507 

expect at least toleration at his hands. The Catho- 
lics, checkmated as they were,, and unprepared 
either with an organisation or the assurance of 
foreign aid, could only hope for the best, and 
hasten as they might to secure the smiles of the 
monarch, from whom a large number of them had 
reason to expect some sympathy.^ A bold voice 
here and there, like that of Ralegh, dared to say a 
word of remonstrance at the adulation with which 
Englishmen were preparing to receive the King of a 
nation which they had always been taught to look 
upon with disdain — " to spoil a gude King," as one 
of James's Scottish courtiers said ; but as a rule, 
each man was thinking of his own future, and the 
race to greet the King was not for the purpose of 
imposing conditions upon him, but to encourage 
him in his extremest ideas of the sacredness of the 
royal prerogative. Even the Jesuit party, either in 
hopelessness of help from Spain or in the real belief 
that James would keep his word, welcomed the new 
King ; and Father Garnet, the Provincial, burnt two 
briefs of the Pope exhorting English Catholics to 
allow no one to succeed to the throne who did not 
promise at least toleration.^ They were soon unde- 

1 In a notable secret letter to Cecil, in reply to the latter's remark 
that he did not like to see loyal Catholics sacrificed by dozens, James 
said, " I will never allow in my conscience that the blood of any man 
shall be shedde for diversitie of opinions in religion ; and I would be 
sorry that Catholiques should so multiplie as they might be able to 
practise their old principles upon us. I will never agiee that any 
should dye for erroure of faith against the first table ; but I think 
they should not be permitted to worke rebellion against the second 
table . . . No ! I am so far from an intention of persecution, as I 
protest to God I reverence their Church as our Mother Church, though 
clogged with many corruptions." 

2 Whilst James was on his journey south Garnet wrote : " The 



5o8 TREASON AND PLOT 

ceived. There was to be no concession either to 
Catholics or Puritans from a King who had pro- 
fessed at different times to belong to both creeds ; 
and the Catholics now, doubtless aware too late of 
the tardy decision of the Spanish King, were doubly 
chagrined to find how they had been betrayed. 

That the Bye and Main Plots, and even the 
Gunpowder Conspiracy, were the rank, sporadic 
aftergrowth of the greater plan which Spanish pro- 
crastination prevented from ripening in time, may 
be accepted as certain. It is more than doubtful 
if the sum of money offered by Count Arenberg, the 
Archduke's ambassador, to Cobham and Ralegh 
after James's accession was intended to promote 
revolution or regicide ; it was far more likely to have 
been employed to obtain better terms for Spain and 
the Catholics in the coming treaty of peace. The 
Spaniards and Jesuits must have seen now that 
they had failed in conspiracy, as they had failed in 
invasion ; the archpriest Blackwell, Jesuit nominee 
though he was, was as anxious to denounce the dis- 
loyal plots of secular priests like Watson,^ as was 
the notorious Jesuit-hater Father Cecil himself, and 
a cause thus divided and subdivided against itself 
could not hope to prevail. The 100,000 ducats lent 
by Spinola, and the knowledge of the decision of 
Spain to have aided an English Catholic candidate, 

Catholics have great cause to hope for great respect ; in that the 
nobility, almost all, labour for it, and have good promise thereof from 
his Majesty." 

' The action of the Jesuit party in divulging the Bye Plot to Cecil, 
partly, no doubt, owing to the bitter feud between the two sections of 
Catholics, may also have been inspired by the knowledge that the aim 
of the conspirators was toleration. 



PROTESTANTISM TRIUMPHANT 509 

still drove a few ambitious hot-heads to dream that 
they could turn back the hands of the clock and 
undo what had been done. But it was too late. 
Toleration perhaps might still have been wrung 
from James by formidable united pressure from 
without and within ; but the battle of Catholic 
supremacy in England was finally lost when Robert 
Cecil secretly rallied to James, and when the sloth- 
ful Spanish King and Lerma wasted two years in 
making up their minds finally as to their policy 
towards the section of English Catholics that had 
for so long looked to Spain for help and guidance. 

Even if the Gunpowder Plot had destroyed the 
King and his house, a Catholic sovereign of Eng- 
land under Spanish tutelage would no longer have 
been possible. James might cringe and truckle 
before Gondomar and his master until good Eng- 
lishmen blushed for shame at their sovereign's base- 
ness ; his son might dance attendance on a Philip, 
and endure the insolence of Olivares in the hope of 
being honoured with a Spanish bride, but no Eng- 
lish prince dared now adopt Catholicism as the ex- 
clusive religion of his countiy, or attempt once more 
to submit England to the yoke of the Papacy : for 
out of the forty years of struggle a potent empire 
had emerged, determined to choose its own form of 
faith, and able successfully to resist all dictation from 
the foreigner, even though its degenerate sovereign 
had forgotten the dignified traditions of Elizabeth. 



INDEX 



Adelantado, the (Don Martin 

de Padilla), 217, 227-229, 247, 

249-263, 288, 290, 366, 369, 

378, 407, 466, 476 
Aguila, Don Juan del, Spanish. 

commander at Kinsale, 453- 

470 
Albert, Archduke, 259, 278, 281, 

302, 330-331, 367, 402, 403, 423, 

425, 479-480, 483 
Allen, Cardinal, 11, 82, 87, 90, 95, 

215 
Almond, Priest, 91 
Andrada, Manuel, 121-122, 124- 

125, 126, 128-130, 137, 162-164 
Angus, Earl of, 24, 27, 48, 65, 205 
Annias' confessions, 103-104, 109, 

115 

Antonio, Don, Portuguese pre- 
tender, 109, I iS passim 

Arabella Stuart, 211, 215, 274- 
281, 302,417,496-504, 505 

Archer, Father, 107, 471 

Archpriest controversy, 85, 272- 

273,314-315, 327,421 
Arenberg, Count, 508 
Argyll, Earl of, 67-69, 313 
Armada, Political effects of its 

defeat, 1-17 
Armagh, Archbishop of. See 

M'Gavran 

battle of, 306-309 

Arundel, Sir Thomas, 319 

Bacon, Anthony, 143, 194 
Francis, 35, 337, 396 



Bagenal, Sir Henry, defeat at 

Armagh, 306-309 
Bagshaw, Dr., 272, 315, 323-325? 

416 
Balgarys, Walter Lindsay, Lord, 

26, 31, 69-74, 78-79, 201-203, 

210-211 
Baltimore, Spaniards at, 455, 461, 

462, 468, 470 
Baltinglas, Viscount, 56, 60, 63 
Barclay, Hugh, sent to Spain, 69, 

202-203, 2 1 1 
Barnes, 276, 283 
Beauchamp, Lord, 257, 274, 279, 

498, 500, 503, 504 
Bethune, Maxmilian (Due de 

Sully), in Scotland, 381 
Bingham, Sir Richard, 54, 230, 

231, 333 
Bisley, priest, 97 
Black, Scottish minister, 205 
Blackwell, Archpriest of England, 

273, 314,421, 422, 508 
Blanks, the Spanish, 27 
Blount, Sir Christopher, 343, 393 
Bluet, Father, 273, 416 
Botello, Diego, 128 
Boulogne. See Peace negotiations 
Both well, Earl of (Francis Stuart), 

64-65, 77, 78, 387; his plans 

for invading Scotland, 417-420, 

490 
Borough, Lord, Lord-Deputy, 265, 

266, 267 
Boyd, Charles, his mission to 

Spain, 25-26 



512 



INDEX 



Brimingham, Tyrone's secretary, 

sent to Spain, 302 
Brochero, Admiral Don Diego, 

453-455 
Brounker, Sir Henry, 499-501 
Bruce, Edward, Abbot of Kinloss, 

364, 388, 440, 505, 506 

Robert, of Bemie, 27, 42, 310 

Buckliurst, Lord, 336, 413, 423, 

431 
Bull of excommunication, 84-85 
Burghley, Lord, 18, 28, 32, 33, 
37, 40, 61, 83-84, 89,1 28-130, 
193, 282-283, 292, 297, 336 
Lord, Thomas Cecil, 431, 

434, 505 
Burke, Redmond, 465 

William, in Dunboy, 471 

Button, Captain, 459 
Bye and Main Plots, 508 

Cadiz, tbe attack on, 194-200, 

216, 220 
Cahill's confessions, 106-109, ^lo, 

112 
Calais, capture of, by tbe 

Spaniards, 192, 244, 284 
Caldeira, 136 
Campion, Father, 11 
Caracena, Count, 472 
Carew, Sir George, President of 

Munster, 336, 431, 444, 452-454, 

454-469, 475 
Gary, Robert, 506 
Castlehaven, Spaniards in, 461- 

462, 463, 464, 468, 470 
Catholics in England, 80 et seq., 

242-243, 271-274, 276-281, 315, 

41 1, 427-428, 479-480, 483, 489 
Cavendish, Henry, 498, 499, 502 

William, 498, 499 

Cecil, Father John, 41-49,61, 64- 

65, 66, 69-74, 93, 201-203, 210- 

216, 280, 281, 363, 508 



Cecil, Sir Robert, 32-33, 35, 142- 
143, 232, 244, 250, 281, 284, 292, 
31 5' 359-364, 367-369, 375, 381, 
390, 395, 413, 423, 431, 436; 
his understanding with James 
VI., 439-443, 491 ; his betrayal 
of his party, 492-494, 504-506, 
509 

Cerda, Martin de la, Spanish ■ 
captain in Ireland, 400-402, 404, 
407, 446, 449, 464, 467 

Chamberlain, Father, Tyrone's 
confessor, 447 

Chateau Martin, spy, 37-38, 40, 
61, 66 

Chisholm, Bishop of Dunblane, 45 

Bishop of Vaison, 45, 419, 

420 

Cisneros, captain in Ireland, 183- 
187 

Claimants to the English succes- 
sion, 32, 166, 204,211,215, 221, 
274-281, 41 1-417, 478-480, 483, 
485, 486, 495-504 

Clement VIIL, Pope, 201-203, 214 

Clifford, Sir Conyers, 351 

Cobham, Lord, 292, 347, 365, 413, 
432, 492, 493, 508 

Cobos, Alonso, in Ireland, 182, 
230-238, 266-267, 400 

Coke, Speaker (Attorney-General), 

34, 324 
Collen's confessions, 103-109 
Constable, English Catholic refu- 
gee, 284, 380, 420 
Creighton, Scottish Jesuit, 420 
Cresswell, Father Joseph, Jesuit, 
224-225, 318-319, 382, 411-417, 
478, 482, 484, 488, 494 
Cumberland, Earl of, 274, 292, 

294, 295, 374, 496 
Curlews, Battle of, 351 

Dacre, Lord, 44, 285 



INDEX 



513 



Daniel's disclosures, 106-109 
Dan vers, Sir Charles, 395, 431 
Derby, Earl of, approached by the 
Catholics, 102, 108, 274, 414, 

417, 496 
Derrick, Francis, 275-276 
Desmond, Earl of (James Fiiz- 

thomas), 334, 397, 399, 409, 444, 

448, 45i»4S7 

John of, 448 

Docwra, Sir Richard, 445, 452 
Donegal, rebels meet in, 54-184, 

193, 232-238, 399-402, 404, 446 
Donnell, Spainagh (Kavanagh), 

352 
Douai, seminary at, 11, 82, 83 
Drake, Sir Francis, 5-6, 18, 37-39, 

47, 169-171 ; last voyage, 172- 

174, 196 

Drummond, James, Scottish en- 
voy to the Pope, 419 

Dunblane, Bishop of. See Chis- 
holm 

Dunboy, Spaniards in, 461-462, 
468-470 ; captured by O'SviUi- 
van, 471-473 

Dynastic parties in England, 361, 
411-417, 421-422, 427-428, 431- 
437? 485-487, 491 'passim 

Edmunds, Sir Thomas, 423-424 
Egerton, Lord Keeper, 336, 338 
Elizabeth, her attitude towards 

the Catholics, 10, 17, 26, 33, 35, 

81-85 

her death, 504-506 

her letters to James VI,, 29, 

48, 66, 68, 205, 203 
Elizabeth's attitude towards Spain, 

18, 20-21, 35, 191, 193, 194, 
282, 297 
anger with Essex for his con- 
duct in Ireland, 350-360, 391- 
396, 429-430 



Elliot, Captain, 257, 279, 318 

Elphinstone, Secretary, 420 

Englefield, Sir Francis, 87, 219, 
222, 225 

English Catholics against Spain 
and the Jesuits, 14, 45, 86, 113^ 
114, 165, 204, 209, 215, 218, 
243, 271, 284-287, 314-315. 
325-327, 410, 420-421, 483 

Errol, Earl of, 24, 27, 48, 65, 75, 
205, 279-281 

Essex, Earl of, 32, 89, 108, 109, 
113, 131-132, 142-143. i6r, 
194-200, 244-250, 297, 302, 
317-325 ; goes to Ireland, 332, 
333, 337-357 ; return and dis- 
grace, 357-360, 389, 391, 392- 
397, 400, 416, 420-421, 428 ; 
his rebellion, 429-437 

Eustace, Captain, 54, 104, 115 

Falmouth, plan to betray, 257, 

259. 293. 316 
Faux, English recusant, 99 
Feagh, M'Hugh O'Byrne, 63, 230, 

231, 241 
Fenton, Sir Geoffrey, 239, 241, 

265, 298, 398, 445, 447 
Fentry, Graham of, 26, 29 
Feria, Duchess of, 45, 87, 225 
Fernihurst, Ker of, sent to Madrid, 

490 
Ferreira da Gama, 132-152 
Fitzgerald, Sir Maurice, 57, 58, 

60, 63, 402 
James Fitzmaurice, 52, 57, 

60, 63 
Fitzherbert, Nicholas, 218 
Thomas, 317, 318, 319, 320 ; 

his report on English and 

Scottish aflFairs, 383-388, 410 
Fitzmaurice, Thomas, in Dunboy, 

471 
Fixer, Father, 41, 91 

2 K 



SH 



INDEX 



Fuentes, Count de, 138, 149, 152, 
160, 366 

Garnet, Dr., Jesuit, 1 1 i-i 12, 422, 

480, 507 
Geraldines, the, 51-52, 56-57, 60, 

63, 402 
GiflFord, Dr., 154, 156, 158, 159, 

160, 166, 204, 209, 215, 218 
Glenlivat, battle of, 67-68 
Godolphin, Sir Francis, 171, 293 

Sir William, 468 

Gomez d'Avila, 1 33-141 
Gordon, Father, 69, 280, 310 
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 316, 431, 

432 
Grey de Wilton, Lord, 358, 413 

Harrington, Sir John, 348, 391, 

397 
Harvey, Captain, commands at 

Castlehaven, 470 
Haydon, Joseph, priest, 218 
Heighington, English Catholic 

refugee, 87 
Henry IV. of France, 15-16, 25, 

166, 169, 191, 211, 281, 282, 

292, 297, 488 
Herrys, Lord, 78 
Hertford, Earl of, 497-499, 500, 

504 
Hesketh, refugee, 14 ; sent to 

England, 102, 108, 218, 274 
Holt, Father, 46, 87, loi, 104, 

105, 106, 107, 154, 155, 157, 

159, 161, 165, 207, 215, 225, 

287 
Howard, Lord Admiral, 195-198, 

246, 250, 292, 375 ; Earl of 

Nottingham, 376, 413, 423, 431 
Lord Henry, 429, 441, 493, 

496, 505 
Lord Thomas, 197, 246, 247, 

292, 374 



Hunger ford, Lady, 225 
Hunsdon, Lord, 423 
Huntingdon, Earl of, 496 
Huntly, Earl of, 23-24, 27, 29, 

31, 41, 64, 65, 75, 76, 78-79, 
204, 210, 212 

Hume, Lord, Scottish Catholic, 
65, 380 

Ibarra, Esteban de, 105, 112, 115, 

134, 149, 152, 158, 160, 208, 

216, 253, 450 
Idiaquez, Secretary,"44-45, 58, 60, 

218, 318, 405 
Infanta, the, 166, 225, 259, 277, 

278, 367, 382, 411, 478-479, 

483, 485, 496 
Invasion, fears of, in England, 35, 

37-39, 62, 169-174, 194, 204, 

242, 244-250, 291-293, 328, 

369-378 
Ireland, reports on the condition 

of, 63, 186, 401, 404, 409, 

449 
Irish rebellions, 50-64, 174-186, 
193, 229-241, 263-270, 298- 
309, 332-335, 344-356, 397- 
410, 443-477 

James VI., his claims to the Eng- 
lish succession, 40-47, 49, 66- 
79, 201, 204-216, 273, 281, 285, 
312, 363, 364-365, 366, 389, 
419-420, 431, 437, 439-443, 486, 
491, 504-509 

his Catholic intrigues, 23- 

32, 40, 45, 48, 49, 64, 65, 66, 
76-79, 203-216, 302, 310-314, 
364-366, 379-390, 410, 419-420, 
486, 507 

his correspondence with 

Elizabeth, 31, 75, 205, 303 

his correspondence with 

Cecil, 441 passim 



INDEX 



515 



James, Thomas, his mission to 

Spain, 478 et seq., 489 
Jaques Francis, Captain, 46, loi- 

103, 104, 106 
Jesuits join the English mission, 

11-13,26,85 
Jesuit policy towards England, 1 1, 

13, 41-46, 85-88,90-112, 165, 
213, 217-225, 271-274, 284- 
287, 314, 323-327, 3651 366, 
410-416, 420-422, 427-428, 478, 
482-483, 494, 496 

Kelly, James, Irish rebel, 263- 

264 
Ker, George, 27-28, 43, 311-312, 

481 
Killaloe, Bishop of. See O'Neil. 
Killibegs, 230, 231, 239, 265-474 
Killigrew, 257, 259, 293, 316 
Kinsale, Spanish occupation of, 

454-469 

siege of, 457-469 

Knollys, Sir William, 336, 436 

Ladyland, Laird of, 7^^ 74> 201- 

203 
Lalley, Thomas, mission to Spain, 

263, 302 
Lea, Captain, his plot to rescue 

Essex, 435 
Leveson, Admiral Sir Eichard, 

451, 460, 462 
Lewis, Owen, Bishop of Cassano, 

14, 45. 95> 116, 167, 204, 220, 
225 

Lingen, Catholic, arrested, iio- 
III 

Lopez, Dr., conspiracy, 11.5-153 ; 
his antecedents, 117; pro- 
posal to poison Don Antonio, 
119; communication with the 
Spaniards, 120; agent for Wal- 
eingham, 123; arrest, 142; par- 



tial confession, 149 ; trial and 
execution, 149-157, 162 
Lopez de Soto, 250 passim, 288, 
289, 470 

M'Carty More, 397, 399, 444, 451, 

457 
MacDermot, 241 
M'Donnell (James Oge M'Sorley- 

boy), 236 
M'Qavran, Archbishop of Armagh, 

54 
Macguire of Fermanagh, 53, 59, 

174, 180, 182 
Maclean, Sir John, 313 
M'Mahon of Monaghan, 53, 404 
M'Suyne, 182, 233, 239 
M'William Bourke, 183, 230, 233, 

235, 241, 264, 446 
Maisse, De, French envoy, 282- 

283 
Mar, Earl of, envoy to England, 

431-432, 439 
Markham, Sir Griffin, 1 56 
Marques Kodrigo, 121, 124-125- 

126, 162 
Medinilla, Captain, in Ireland, 

183-187 
Mendoza, Bernardino de, 23 
Middleton, Captain R. W., 154 
Montjoy, Lord, Lord-Deputy, 332, 

337, 389, 394-395. 398, 430, 435, 

443-445. 448-452, 454 ; at Kin- 
sale, 458-469 
Moody, 88 

Morgan, Thomas, 14, 45 
Morton, Dr., 87 
Mostyn, Hugh, 446, 465 
Moura, Cristobal de. Secretary, 61 

125, 129, 139, 148, 162, 217, 253 
Mumford, Priest, 177 
Munday, conspirator, 318, 324- 

325 
Mush, Father, 85, 273, 327 



5i6 



INDEX 



NoRREYs, Sir Edward, 245 

Sir John, 175, 177, 182, 232, 

234, 239, 240, 265, 298 
Northumberland, Earl of, 375, 

493, 505 

O'Connor, Sir Charles, 60 

Don, 180, 231 

Roe, 180 

Sligo, 351,446 

O'Conroy, Father Florence, 475- 
476 

O'CuUan, priest, confession of, 
176 

O'Davitt, Hugh Boy, 238, 316 

O'Dogherty, 230, 233, 236 

O'Donnell, Brian, priest, 178, 189 

Hugh, 52-53, 55-57, 59, i74, 

178, 179, 181, 182, 184, 186, 230- 
238, 239, 240, 241, 263, 266, 268, 
299, 304, 316, 333, 345, 351, 379, 
397, 398, 400, 404, 408-409, 444, 
449, 457, 458, 461-462 ; defeat, 
464-465 ; flight to Spain, 465- 
466, 474 ; death, 475-476, 481 

O'Driscoll, Sir Finnan, 461, 471, 

473 
O'Driscolls, the, 455, 461, 470, 

471, 473, 476 
O'Ferrall, 180 
O'Flaherty, 180 
Ogilvie, Laird of Pury, 27 ; his 

mission, 203-216, 290 
O'Healy, Archbishop of Tuam, 

his mission to Spain, 54, 64, 

174 
O'Kelly, 180 

Olivares, Count, 483, 486, 487 
O'Malley, 180 
O'More, 180 
O'Neil, The. fee Tyrone 

Cormack, 233, 239, 241 

Cornelius, Bishop of Killaloe, 

54, 57-58, 175-176, 178, 226,318 



O'Neil, Henry, son of Tyrone, 402 

John, son of Tyrone, 402-476 

Macwilliam, 233 

O'Reilly, 179 

Ormonde, Earl of, 269, 299, 305, 

398 
O'Rourke, Brian, senior, 53, 59-60 
Brian, 53, 59, 174, 178, 179, 

180, 181, 183, 233, 241, 268, 446, 

448, 473 
O'Sullevan, Philippus, 463, 472 
O'SuUivan Beare, 457, 461, 462, 

470, 471-473 

Sir Owen, 457 

Oviedo, Mateo de, Spanish Arch- 
bishop of Dublin, 400-402,416, 

447, 449, 456 
Owen, Hugh, 87, 97, loi, 106, 107, 

109, 159, 207, 218 
Richard, envoy of Tyrone, 

408, 446 

Paez de Clavijo, Spanish cap- 
tain of Rincorran, 460 

Pagets, the, 14, 95, 158, 159, 160, 
166, 209, 215, 218, 283, 284, 

330, 363 
Parker, Sir Nicholas, 293 
Parliament of 1 593, 33 et seq. 
Parma, Duke of (Ranuccio), 276- 

277, 485 

Parry, Dr., 88 

Parsons, Robert. See Persons 

Peace negotiations with Spain, 
423-428 

Pembroke, Earl of, 375 

Perez, Antonio, 89, 104-105, 106, 
109, 131, 152, 169 

Persons (or Parsons), Father 
Robert, 11, 13, 41-46, 85, 91, 
95, III, 165, 167, 204, 214-216, 
217-225, 273,287,290,314,327, 
382, 411-417,420,428,478-479, 
484, 488, 497 



INDEX 



517 



Persons, Father, hisbookon thesuc- 

cession, 32, 166, 204, 221, 411 
Pew, conspirator, 154 
Phellips, Thomas, spy-master, 96, 

97 
Philip II., his policy towards 
England, 6-10, 14-16, 18-19, 
23, 162-165, 168, 199, 217, 258, 

259. 273, 301. 330 

his attitude towards the 

Scots Catholics, 36, 40-47, 49, 
66-79, 201-216 

his action in Ireland, 50-51, 

60-61, 64, 171-176, 177-186 

III., 366, 367, 403. 405-407, 

465, 478, 481, 485, 490 

Pierce, Dr., English refugee, 218, 
220 

Plots to assassinate Elizabeth, 88, 
90-96, 97, 112, 115-152, 153- 
164, 317-325 

Political parties in England (i.e. 
Cecil and Essex), 32-35, 37, 61, 
89-90, 113, 131, 142-143, 161, 
169, 195, 243-244, 278, 279, 281, 
293, 297, 302, 310-31 1, 317-325, 
359-364, 375-377,394-395,421, 
431 passim, 491, 508-509 

Polwhele's confessions, 101-106, 
109 

Porres, Spaniard, sent to Scotland, 
47-48, 49, 64, 65, 66, 73-74 

Portalegre, Count, feara of an Eng- 
lish attack, 188, 193 

Presbyterians in Scotland, 26, 65, 
75, 203-205 

Puckering, Lord Keeper, 33, 34, 
99-100 

Puritans, the, 10, 18, 33, 37, 311, 
382 

Ralegh, Sir W., 20, 36-37, 195- 
198, 243, 245, 246-247, 248, 249, 
292, 3U, 342, 347, 360, 365, 374, 



396, 413, 424, 431-432, 492-493, 
507, 508 

Randall, William, 46-48 

Raphoe, Bishop of, 233 

Revenge, the, 21, 197 

Rincorran, Castle of. See Kinsale. 

Rivers, Father, 497, 502 

Rolls, his plot to murder Eliza- 
beth, 319-325 

Rome, English College at, 11, 85, ^ 
411 * 

Russell, Lord-Deputy, 175, 177, 
182, 231, 232, 239, 240, 265 

Saavedea, Captain, commands 

Dunboy, 471 
Scottish Catholics, 14, 23-33, 36, 

40-48, 64-66, 67-69, 70-79, 171, 

201 -204, 205-2 1 6, 3 1 0-3 14,417- 

420, 481, 490 

rebels, 67-69-79, 417, 490 

Secular priests, English, 14, 85, 

271-273, 314-31S, 324-327 
Seminary priests, 1 1, 26, 41, 47-82, 

85, 86, 88-96 
Semple, Colonel, 32, 76, 382, 467 

Lord, Scottish envoy to 

Spain, 383, 388, 410 

Matthew, sent to Spain, 76- 

79, 201 

Sessa, Duke of, 201-202, 210-214, 

41 1-4 1 3, 420,421,479,488 
Sherwood, Father, loi, 102, 106, 

277 
Shrewsbury, Countess of, 277, 502 
Dowager Countess of, 275, 

277, 498, 502, 503, 504 

Earl of, 375, 498, 502 

Sidney, Sir Robert, 245 
Slatimor, J., sent to Ireland, 63 
Smyth, Sheriff of London, 432-434 
Southampton, Earl of, 340, 343, 

347, 393-395, 431 ; liis trial, 

435-437 



5i8 



INDEX 



Spain, real source of its power, 
1-3; exhaustion of, 5, 6, 62, 170- 
171, 189, 193-200, 250-254, 263, 

295> 33 1» 379> 4o8, 483 
Spaniards land in Cornwall, 171 
Spanish expeditions to Ireland, 

182, 183-184,227-229,230-238, 

266, 346, 379, 400-410, 445, 

450-477 

plans of invasion, 37-39, 

42, 217, 220-229, 245, 250-263, 
288-296, 316, 370-378, 383-390, 
403-409, 453-469, 487 

navy, efforts to renew, 20, 

22, 36, 250-256 

Spinola, Ambrosio, to lend money 
to attack England, 489 

Squire, his plot to murder Eliza- 
beth, 319-325 

Stafford, 88 

Stanley, John, conspirator, 317- 

325 

Sir W., 37, 44, 46, 54,87, 88, 

97, loi, 102, 109, 154-155, 158, 
218, 274, 275, 382, 408 

Stapleton, 502 

Dr., 167, 219, 220 

Starkey, Arabella Stuart's chap- 
lain, 498, 501 

Sterrel, spy, 97, 103, 221, 275, 276 

Stillington, Dr., 87 

Stuart, Patrick, Scottish envoy to 
the Pope, 419 

Throgmorton, Thomas, 158-159, 

204 
Tichborne, Henry, his Jesuit 

treatise, 287 
Tinoco (Manuel Luis), 134-135, 

138, 152 
Treherne, English refugee, 218 
Trentine Decrees, 10 
Tresham, Captain, 14, 159, 218, 

363 



Tyrie, Father, Jesuit, 213 
Tyrone, Earl of, 52, 61, 170, 174 ; 
passion, 230-238, 239, 240, 263- 
270, 298-309, 313-314, 316, 333, 
344-356, 366, 379, 389, 392, 393, 
397, 398, 400-410, 444-449, 457, 
458, 464 ; defeat at Kinsale, 465- 
473, 474, 475, 476 
Tyrrell, Captain, in Dunboy, 471 
Tuam, Archbishop of. See O'Healy 

Udal, Ralph, priest, 327 
Unton, Sir H., mission to France, 
191 

Vaison, Bishop of. See Chisholm 
Vald^s, Don Pedro de, 39 
Valladolid, English CoUege at, 41, 

47,87,411 
Vere, Sir Francis, 197, 244, 246, 

374 
Verreyken, Flemish peace envoy, 

423 
Vervins, peace of, 297 

Walpole, Father Henry, 1 01, 107; 
his arrest and confession, iio- 
112 

Father Richard, alleged com- 
plicity in murder plot, 317-325 

Warford, priest, 91 

Watson, Father, 315, 363, 411, 
508 

Webster, English recusant, con- 
fessions of, 97-99 

Westmorland, Earl of, 44, 285 

Weston, Father, 272, 314, 325 

White Knight, the, 332, 45 1 

Wight, Isle of, to be ceded to 
Spain, 488 

Williams, Richard, conspiracy of, 
154-161 

Wilmot, Sir Charles, 454 



INDEX 



519 



Wisbech Castle, 86, 166, 314, 323, 

32s 

Stirs, 272 

Wood, James, of Bonnington, 

Papal envoy to Scotland, 

380 
Worcester, Earl of, 275, 375. 414, 

485, 495 
Worthington, Dr., 154, 158, 159, 
160, 218, 220 



YoRKE, Edmund, conspiracy of, 
153-161 

Young, Father (Dingley), con- 
fessions of, 90-96 

Henry, conspirator, 1 54-161 

ZuBlAUR, Pedro de (Admiral), 
453-454, 460, 461, 462, 463, 465 

ZuSiga, Spanish ambassador, 425- 
427, 485 



THE END 



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